> Fire & Rain: Applejack and the Queen of Knives > by Limbo Theorem > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > For Want of a Nail > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ONCE UPON A TIME: Sunset ran. She ran all the while unable to outrun the accusations and jeers of those she thought of as friends.  Accusations for things she didn’t – would never, could never – do, but was held to blame for, nonetheless. “I thought you changed, Sunset?  How could you do this to us?” “Darling, I thought we were friends.  I guess I was wrong on that account.” “Not cool, Sunset.  Totally not cool.” It was amazing in that mere months after the incident with the Sirens, and having redeemed herself in the eyes of her fellow students, that this Anon-a-Miss would come around and destroy everything dear to her.  Worse, even though she knew she was innocent, the evidence pointed only to her.  It was a brilliant setup, and one she couldn’t get out of. And now the final insult had come: despite Sunset’s writing to Princess Twilight for advice, her friends spurned her.  Rarity had ignored her, Rainbow had yelled at her, Pinkie gave her the cold shoulder… Fluttershy slapped me.  Actually slapped me! And now here she was, two days before Christmas break, standing in the snow and before the portal that led back to her home dimension, Sunset felt frozen tears on her face as she pulled the book out of her backpack and wrote a single line: Twilight, I want to come home. But no answer came, just as there had been no answer for the past two weeks, and Sunset sat there, crying in the snowfall, her tears forming an icy mask on her face.  No matter how much she tried, how desperately she pled, there was no answer. There’s just no place left for me in this world…. One step became two. Two became four.  And eventually the footsteps vanished in the snowy, frozen night. The next day, Applejack would find Sunset’s diary, half-buried in the snow.  Reading through it, the blonde was wracked with grief.  Though she had suspected Sunset may have been telling the truth, reading the journal definitely changed her mind about Sunset’s guilt.  Yet there was no sign of the girl to apologize to. The rest would follow a week later, when on Christmas Eve, the culprits – the younger sisters of Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity – all confessed to being Anon-a-Miss and letting Sunset take the fall.  They tearfully apologized, but the damage was beyond done.  In the end, all three would be suspended from school for their actions. But it paled beside the guilt of five older girls, writing in a beat-up diary, apologizing and pleading for Sunset to forgive them, to return, to make things right. But no answer ever came. ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Walking onto the dais to receive her diploma, Rarity couldn’t help but look at the empty seat the students all agreed to dedicate to their lost companion.  It was a cruel irony that having spent her first two years of high school terrorizing the student body, in the end Sunset became its victim. Another irony surfaced in the girl’s mind as she briefly made eye contact with others in the crowd: despite having spent so long trying to break up their friendship with one another, it was now her absence that had finally caused it.  The five had drifted apart over the past year or so, and were now barely more than strangers to one another.  Not even Princess Twilight’s visit a month ago could undo the damage that had been done...the damage they’d done to themselves. Once the ceremony was over, she left as soon as she could.  Nothing tied her here anymore, and the sooner she got away from the chair that accused her with all its emptiness, the better. SEVEN YEARS AGO: Fluttershy walked down the street, a woman on a mission.  Her fiancé had just proposed two days ago, and the chiffon-haired girl had, needless to say, accepted.  And now here she was, taking an early look at bridal gowns.  She giggled a bit at that; just years ago she’d told herself she never thought she’d be the marrying kind, but now? Of that there was no doubt – after all, she had landed herself the best guy in the world. And now here she was, in the Shopping District of Cloudsdale, relaxing and just as giddy as could be.  She wished some of her friends could join her for it, but they were all busy studying for the upcoming exams, something Fluttershy herself wasn’t having much issue with.  And besides, right now she had earned a respite for herself, she thought, as she looked at the simple engagement ring now on her finger. And now to do some shopping, she thought to herself. On the first block, she walked past a store with a sports display, and there was a sight she hadn’t expected to see: Rainbow Dash, dressed in the uniform of the Canterlot Comets, endorsing a popular line of athletic gear.  From what little Fluttershy knew, Rainbow had done well for herself, becoming the top striker in the Women’s National Soccer League. She had one of the highest-paying contracts in the business, and the brash tempestuous young woman already had a championship ring to her name. Fluttershy moved on; there was no interest for her in this store, anyway.   She walked down the street a little further, until she passed one of those storefront comedy clubs, a place called DISCORD’s, complete with a (currently-off) neon sign depicting some sort of strange upright chimeraesque thing.  The poster to the left of her, as well as the marquee, announced that for one night only, the world-famous comedienne and actress, Pinkie Pie, would be performing. If Rainbow had done well for herself, Pinkie had done better.  Her cable baking show BAKING WITH PINKIE had turned from a public-access cable show into a nationwide monster hit on HBO.  She instantly translated that to fame on the standup circuit and a starring role in a recent movie that had garnered her an Academy Award nomination, a rare event for a comedy film. Fluttershy moved on again.  There was nothing here for her, either. Finally, two blocks past that, she found the place she was looking for, a bridal store recommended by a friend who had gotten married to her beau last year.  Fluttershy went in, mainly to just window shop for the moment, but the sales clerk was insistent; a few moments later, the chiffon-haired woman found herself in a gorgeous dress she absolutely loved, an off-the-shoulder number embroidered with the design of small birds that she just found absolutely adorable. And then she saw the tag.  It wasn’t the cost that bothered her; her parents were covering that and they told her to find something she loved.  No, it was the designer label that bothered her. “Excuse me,” Fluttershy asked, holding her frown in check, “but is this a Rarity original?” The sales clerk smiled beatifically.  “Why, buttons and bodkins! Of course it is!  Everything in this boutique is a Rarity original!  She’s just simply the best designer in the fashion business, so when she was asked to design some wedding gowns, she threw herself into the spirit of things!”  The clerk prattled on for a few more minutes, squeeing about Rarity in a way that bordered on unhealthy. Fluttershy’s smile fell, but turned away in a manner that prevented the clerk from seeing.  “I see,” was all she said. She left the store empty-handed, making a mental note to take a day trip to Cirrusburg next weekend.  She could bring some friends along and maybe find something to her tastes. Something that wouldn’t turn her wedding into a half-baked reminder of the past and its pain. FIVE YEARS AGO: “Okay, class,” Fluttershy said as she looked at her students.  She had been teaching here at Canterlot High School for two years now and in some ways, it felt like she never left.  “Are you ready for today’s pop quiz?” In a sense she couldn’t: she’d inherited the Journal (the word always capitalized in her mind) and with it, the all-but-dead hope that someday a response would come within its pages. Her students groaned, but that was to be expected; nobody liked science classes, and as one of the science teachers at the school, she was tasked with guiding the new future – the students – on, just as those before her had done so. As she passed out the notes, she grinned; at least she could count on her classes being popular with the boys because of the hot teacher.  She blushed a little recalling what one of her colleagues had said was graffito in the boys’ restroom, but it made her feel good to know that even in her mid-twenties, she was still attractive. Her phone chimed and she gave a soft grin.  “Okay, I need to take a call,” she told them, “but I’ll be just right outside the door, so no cheating, okay?  I’ll know.”  She gave them all the briefest bit of what her friends had once called The Stare, then stepped out. She answered the phone, putting it to her ear.  “Hi, Flash,” she said, a soft smile coming to her lips.  If anything good had come of Sunset’s disappearance, Fluttershy’s relationship and marriage to Flash Sentry had been it.  Of course, it had also helped that they knew each other from high school, attended the same university and had attended a few of the same classes during their freshman year, but still…. “Hi hon,” he said over the line.  “We still on for tonight?” “Let’s see: you, me, dinner, dancing, and a three-day weekend out of town with lots of fooling around?  Sounds like a plan,” she laughed. “I’m just glad you were able to get the whole weekend off.” “Yeah, well, color me surprised as well,” he told her.  “Fortunately, it’s a slow enough day here at work, so the lieutenant didn’t have much of a problem with me taking off for a few.  Besides, it gives the rookies something to do.” Flash had become a police officer with the Canterlot PD, and was, to her pride, one of the best on the force, with a bright future.  Truth be told, it had surprised her that he’d decided to go into law enforcement for a career given his love of music, but when he admitted he did it so that no girl would ever have to suffer like Sunset had once done, she could hardly argue with him on that. The grin on her face began wide.  “Well, hope you’re strong enough to deal with a weekend with me, Officer, because I’m going to make sure you go back to work completely tired on Tuesday.” She could practically see the grin on his face.  “Just as long as nothing happ—” BOOM The sound rattled the building and she heard the shattering of glass in the distance.  She suddenly felt herself knocked off her feet, and before she knew it, she was on the ground. “What was that?” Flash asked. “I don’t know,” she told him, getting back to her feet.  “Earthquake?” “Earthquakes don’t happen in this part of the country,” he began, but then in the distance, she could hear sirens wail – the Civil Defense system going live.  “I’ve got to get off the phone.  Something’s going on,” he told her. “I love you,” she said to him. “I love you too, Flutters.  Stay safe.” Fluttershy didn’t waste his time and instead hung up immediately; whatever it was, it sounded like a bomb had gone off and that meant something was seriously wrong.  She then walked out of her office, in order to see what was wrong. She walked across the corridor just as she heard the screams outside, likely from the students in PE class.  Rushing out the door, she joined Vice Principal Cheerilee and Derpy Hooves, the literature teacher, as they looked into the sky.  In the distance the Cloudstack, the famed skyscraper that was emblematic of the city, crumbled and fell to Earth. Fluttershy bit off a scream as she knew what it meant. “What’s going on?” she asked Derpy. “Your guess is as good as mine,” her colleague responded, as the sky suddenly turned black.   As they looked up, the sun had suddenly been eclipsed by what looked like a burning hole, an angry wound in the atmosphere.  And soon after, inky, unnatural shapes boiled out of that maw: unnatural, inhuman creatures, all tentacles and teeth – things that looked like nothing they’d seen before except in Lovecraftian nightmares. Things from another dimension. Things, Fluttershy was sure, were not from Equestria. > PRETZEL DRAGONFLY > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEDITERRANEAN OCEAN 091630ZJUL30: The USS Enterprise (CVN-80) steamed silently through the waters of the Mediterranean. One of the last surviving carriers in the world, it was a beacon of hope and a vital global asset in the war against the Others. Surrounded by a convoy of ships from various nations, some of which that had once been allies and some that had once been foes or rivals, there was no such thing anymore – not with the threat to humanity. At the moment, US Navy, US Marine Corps and Royal Navy jets flew from the steel decks, the latter complement of aircraft having been added to the ship’s arsenal after the recent sinking of the UK’s last carrier, HMS Prince of Wales. Within the hull of the ship itself, a crew of American sailors, augmented occasionally by personnel from other services or nations, kept this bastion of freedom afloat and running, not just for the sake of the United States, but now for the world itself. In the center of the aft weight room, a young woman pushed herself to the limit. Lifting weights via machine, she continued to do reps, sweat sliding down her taut and toned muscles, her blonde hair hanging around her face limply. Part amazon and part model, the combination of both gave her an alluring look even if she really didn’t care about that. Finally done, she sat up, picked up a small towel and wiped the stinging sweat from her eyes. As she did, she noticed appreciative glances from various men and women in the room. In another time, she probably would have appreciated the gesture and even responded in kind to some of them. But here on a warship, there was no room for romance or relationships – especially when fraternization regs were still in place. Near thirty, no love prospects and working out on a ship she barely understood: that was her life, and for Lt. Applejack Apple, United States Navy, it was just the way things were. “There you are.” She looked up and standing there, lurching over her in wash khakis was her friend, Lt. Tempest Shadow. With deep brown skin, intense opal eyes and a taller, lither figure than Applejack, the pair were a study in contrasts, especially given Tempest’s dourer and more serious demeanor. The two had met years ago at OTC, and were virtually tied at the hip ever since. “Couldn't sleep, so I decided to burn off the extra energy,” Applejack admitted. “What's up?” “Was looking for you,” she said. “Captain needs to speak to you; he’s waiting in the ready room.” “Okay, tell him I gotta hit the shower and I'll be up in five.” Tempest shook her head, her magenta locks of hair battering the sides of her head. “Nope; now means now.” “Seriously?” “He had me run around the ship looking for you instead of grabbing a yeoman,” Tempest insisted. “He even said, and I quote, ‘Even if you have to pull her out of the shower. But if you do, make sure she's got enough soap covering her so I don’t have to see the apple tattoo she's got by her twat.’” Applejack frowned. “You just had to tell him about that, didn't you?” “Jackie, you were drunk. You told everybody,” Tempest reminded her. “Seriously, that is the last time I’m letting you drink that much.” “Fuck you, Fizzlepop Berrytwist.” “You just had to go there, didn’t you?” Tempest accused. When Applejack's response was a gleeful nod, the taller woman sighed. “So glad my parents renamed me after I was adopted. Being raised by two gay dads was hard enough at times, but growing up with a name like that would've been a playground death sentence.” The two wordlessly went up two more decks and towards the ship's bow, Applejack ignoring the continual stares at her somewhat revealing sweat-soaked PT attire. Fortunately for her, she at least was not wearing a white t-shirt. After a few more seconds, the two reached the ready room in question. Tempest opened the door and the two went in. “Well, you two sure took your sweet time, didn't you?” a man with dusky skin and a thatch of mulberry-colored hair said as he leaned against the table, occasionally brushing his fingers against his wash khakis. Older than either of them, he was reedy thin, with a dapper pencil mustache that gave him the traditional “Latin Lover” look. Still, his slight movements gave him a feline demeanor, like a lion on the verge of pouncing if he caught you unawares. This was Captain Capper Dapperpaws, Commanding Officer of the Navy’s legendary DEVGRU – SEAL Team SIX, the best of the best. “The Old Cat”, as Capper was nicknamed, was an old school operator – one of a dying breed, he often said. And in the business they were in, he very much typified the adage about why one should fear an older man in an occupation where youths died on a regular basis. “Reporting as ordered, sir,” Applejack told him. “Hey, Jackie, have a seat. You too, Temp. Bet you two are wondering why I called you for this little shindig, right?” Applejack leaned forward in her seat the moment she sat down. “Does this have anything to do with PRETZEL DRAGONFLY?” “Well, sorta. It has to do with your report,” he said, still focused more on his fingernails than her. “Sir, I stand by what I put in my after-action. We engaged the Octos in Rome, as ordered and managed to evacuate as many as we could from the city before it was overrun. We were asked to back up the 9th Regiment, and we did so.” “I know and I have no qualms with that, Lieutenant. But, you see….” He paused. “There’s that supplementary report from Chief Shipshape that I’m curious about.” Tempest couldn’t help herself. Rolling her eyes, she said, “Oh, great – we’re going to talk about that.” Capper looked at his other subordinate. “Do you have anything to add, Lt. Shadow?” “Yes, sir. As much as I completely trust Lt. Apple, I highly disagree with her assessment. I certainly didn’t see anything and several of our junior woodchucks didn’t either.” “I know what I saw,” Applejack stated. “I put it in my report and clearly, based on her report, so did Shippy.” “Was that before or after you got dizzied by that plasma blast that threw you into a wall?” Tempest argued. “I know what I saw,” Applejack repeated, gritting her teeth as she said it once more. She’d taken enough shit about it, but she wasn’t going to back down from the truth. “You know I don’t lie.” “I know you don’t – sometimes I think you’re a little too honest for this job, Jackie,” Capper told her. “But you’re one of the best operators I have and I want to know.” “As would I,” a new voice stated. At the sound of said tones, the three officers in the room stood up, just for the speaker to say, “As you were.” “Well, hello, sir,” Capper stated smoothly. “Was just going over with my folks the after-action report.” “I know. It’s why I’m here too. I want to hear this fun,” he said. Applejack and Tempest briefly looked at one another; neither had expected this level of attention to the report. The pair looked at the speaker, who had jauntily grabbed a chair and sat down, reverse style, leaning forward against the seat’s back. The person in question was Vice Admiral Storm King, Commander of Task Force 831, the international flotilla moving around Europe both as a strike force and to survive. Nicknamed “Wildcard”, he’d been a fighter pilot since the days of the First Gulf War and was known for his unconventional style. Surprisingly, it had actually managed to get him promoted up the ranks, whereas a lesser person would have likely been drummed out of the service at that point. The admiral produced a folder. “You know, I’ve been reading this fascinating little piece of fiction here. Lt. Apple, you should have been a novelist.” “Admiral, with all due respect,” Tempest interjected. “I wasn’t asking you, Lieutenant,” King cut her off with a grin that implied a firm tone. “I was asking our little storyteller here.” He then turned back to Applejack. “Personally, I’m…curious…as to the full story. Wouldn’t you say so, Capper?” Capper reached over and picked up a copy of the report, nodding. “It does bear a listen through, sir,” he agreed. Applejack sighed; she didn’t want to talk about it. She wasn’t even really sure she believed it herself. But she knew what she saw – and clearly so did one of her own fellow operators. She sighed. “Well, sir, it’s like this….” *** When she had been younger, Applejack had always wanted to see Rome. During the summer where she lived with her aunt and uncle in Manhattan, she had been regaled of tales from their trips to Europe and Rome, in particular. Back then, during that small time in her life when she dreamed more of being a princess than a girl whose family owned a small farm outside the Canterlot city limits, she always imagined that her prince would sweep her off her feet and carry her to the Trevi Fountain, where she would kiss him and love him forever. Well, she finally made it to the Trevi Fountain after all these years. And as she pulled the body of a dead Italian special warfare operator – a member of the Italian Army’s famed 9th Paratroopers Assault Regiment – away from the firing line, she wondered if that little girl she’d once been had ever thought that the ageless, beautiful work of art would ever be destroyed and smoking, its pool stained red with blood, its volume once littered with coins from well-wishers now filled with the bodies of dead soldiers. Tracers and thin beams of white energy filled the air, the former from her own side and the latter from the strange weapons carried by the Octos – a dysphemism for the Others, based on their generally cephalopodic bodyframes. In many ways, they resembled something like the alien weapons once described in the old book The War of the Worlds…but this was real life, and there was real death occurring here in Rome, one of the very few major cities left on Earth that had not been attacked by the Octos. Until today, that is. Four million civilians, crowded into the capital of Italy and the de facto stronghold of Southern Europe – and now the Octos were slaughtering everything they came across. Both NATO and UNIF – the United Nations Interdiction Force, a multinational organization made of nations that were not a part of already-standing military alliances – responded, and the Italian Army, immediately backed by NATO, American and Russian forces, struck back in a desperate attempt to evacuate the city and maybe save the so-called “Eternal City” from being turned into a smoking abattoir. It was into this that DEVGRU Platoon Alpha, codenamed “the Amazons”, were sent in. They were known as the Amazons because due to the generally mostly-still male bastion that was SPECWAR, the Amazons were an all-female SEAL Team developed by the Navy. Whether due to political correctness or a genuine attempt to let women prove themselves, the initial unit, SEAL Team Four Detachment ONE soon proved itself above and beyond what people had expected, and was soon redesignated as the first platoon in a rebuilt DEVGRU, with Applejack given the slot of platoon Officer in Charge. And now they were ordered into Rome to bolster the other forces present. Their orders were to play hard and nasty and that because the Octos weren’t playing fair and were killing everyone in sight, the Geneva Conventions were now in the past. Anything human, from the vilest criminal to the saintliest child, were to be protected at all costs. Any Octo that had given anything but an indicator of total surrender – and so far that hadn’t happened – was to be dealt with, with extreme prejudice. And so they were sent into the hellish battlefield under the name of Operation PRETZEL DRAGONFLY, a stupid name created by stupid mission planners who selected operational titles based on the intent to not offend. Because clearly that was the most important thing when the survival of the human race was at stake, Applejack mentally snarked. “Doc, what’s the prognosis?” Applejack asked absently while she slammed another magazine into her M110A2. Around her, her fireteam returned fire. She’d been separated from Tempest’s group a while back and she hoped her friend was still amongst the living. The radios were already set for reduced communications, so it wasn’t like she could start an Instachat with her buddy. The corpsman, a young petty officer by the name of Redcross, looked at Applejack. “Well, L-T,” she said, looking down at the cadaver with disgust, “I could’ve saved him if the Octos hadn’t put one of their laser blasts straight through his heart.” “Fuck. Okay, you did what you could, Doc,” Applejack told her. “Let’s see if we can get the fuck somewhere safer.” “Safer? In this fuckhole?” Redcross asked, disbelieving. Despite the situation, Applejack laughed, leaning behind the remains of what had once been an automated taxi. “Hey, we’re at the Trevi, okay? You throw three coins in the fountain and it gives you good luck!” “Who the fuck uses physical money nowadays?” was the reply. “All I have is my debit card!” Footsteps came up as a voice said, “There’s an exchange machine by the fountain. You stick your card in and it’s like five euros to buy three tokens to symbolically toss in.” Applejack looked over and saw her fireteam’s chief petty officer, Shipshape, moving towards her. Shipshape had originally been Army Infantry (an irony, she admitted, given her name), but had switched services when the Navy organized its first female SPECWAR team. Needless to say, she had a lot of experience she brought to the group and more than once, Applejack had tried to convince the grizzled older woman to “go mustang”, only to be told that she didn’t want to be saluted for a living. Applejack poked her head over the ruined carbon-fiber hood of the taxi and loosed several shots into the distance before ducking back; a split second later, lasers filled the space where her head had been. “How do you know about that?” “My first assignment was here in Italy back when I was a private,” Shipshape admitted. “Ended up sleeping with some artist I met here. One-night stand, fun times. Ah, the memories,” Shipshape chuckled. “That’s nice, Shippy. So what’s up?” Shipshape pointed north. “Octos are starting to corral us in. Comms are still down, but word’s being passed that we’re pulling back across the Tiber. They’re already setting up the Vatican as a hotzone for evac.” The look in Shipshape’s gray eyes were one of frustration. “We lost, Jack.” “Fuck.” She didn’t even want to think of how many were going to be left behind, or how many dead whose bodies wouldn’t be buried. Thousands of people, whose only remembrance would be the smoking pit of what had once been the virtual capital of the world. A second later, one of the petty officers spoke up. “Comms just came through, Lieutenant. We’re being pulled back to the Vatican. We’re going to get air cover soon enough, but we’re going to have to pull back soon.” Applejack didn’t have time to respond to her radio operator, as a second later, there was a blinding flash of white light, and she felt herself lifted up by some unknown force. The wind was knocked out of her and her weapon was forced from her hands. A second later she felt the painful impact of herself being slammed against something hard, and a second later the spray of water. She blacked out for a second, feeling the same way she had when she’d been accidentally kicked by one of the horses on her family farm when she had been thirteen. Back then, she’d gotten a broken arm and a lecture from her grandmother on being careful not to spook the horses. Now, she didn’t feel like she had been injured, but as her head spun from the blow and her eyes were recovering from the flash blindness she’d just received, her vision hazy and unable to see more than a few inches in front of her. She guessed by the fact that she was soaking wet that she’d been thrown into the fountain. She also guessed, given that she couldn’t see a thing and that she had no idea where her rifle was, that she was as good as dead the moment an Octo drew a bead on her. Automatically, she went for her sidearm. If she was going to go down fighting, she was going to give as good as she got. She would never see her family again, but at least the Navy would tell them she went down doing her duty to the last. “Okay, you sick sons of bitches,” she hissed, pointing her gun in the direction she hoped the Octos were. “You fuckers want to take me down? I’m not going down that easily you bastards!” she shouted. It was then she felt a gloved hand on her own, gently pushing the gun down. “Let me take care of this,” an androgynous voice said. As Applejack’s vision began to clear, she looked at the person with her…and she couldn’t believe her eyes. A figure, about the same height as her, stood there, dressed in what could only be described as a sort of modern take on medieval armor. A facemask covering the figure’s features, she (Applejack assumed it was a woman, based on the person’s bodyframe) had on what appeared to be a carbon-fiber body armor that covered her arms, torso and legs. She also wore a bright red cloak, giving her a strange appearance between a knight and a superhero. If Applejack didn’t know better, the figure looked as though she had stepped out of that sci-fi shooter game that she and Rainbow Dash played regularly back when they were teenagers. Applejack opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Still, her lips formed the phonemes: what the fuck? The figure chuckled. “I’m here to help,” was all the stranger said, and then with a flourish, turned to face the Octos as they came into Applejack’s cleared vision. The pictures she’d seen of dead Octos didn’t do them justice. Shaped vaguely like cuttlefish, the creatures walked on eight legs, their six eyes covered with goggles of some kind. Unlike earth cephalopods, the arrow-like appendages on their heads pointed forward, as if they had some sort of demented mechanism that urged them onward. Their bodies were covered in some sort of coral growth that served as plate armor, and in their long, noodly tentacles they carried long silvery sticks that had a pulsating crystal, which she was sure were their weapons. She recalled hearing somewhere that attempts to reverse engineer captured copies of the weapons had backfired spectacularly; that the Chinese had attempted to do so, and there was now a massive crater in Tibet where a research lab had once been. The Octos immediately saw the figure and opened fire, filling the air with silvery beams. Applejack had enough presence of mind to dive back into the bloody waters of the Trevi just before she became another casualty, but she watched the figure as she moved – no, danced – forward. Moving with a grace that shouldn’t have been possible for what she wore, the stranger immediately started flinging burning knives of flame towards her opponents, each one flying through the air with impossible precision and burning through the armor of the Octos. Each knife that connected set its target aflame, causing a gurgling, unnatural scream that rang in Applejack’s ears. Within seconds the stranger had taken out six of the Octos and was pushing forwards, throwing the blades with abandon like some flamboyant ninja from Japanese comics. Applejack immediately remembered that game she and Rainbow used to play and there was a class of fighter in the game, a mix of rogue, ranger and archer, that used a combination of various weapons, both modern and medieval, to vanquish alien foes for the sake of mankind. Though it had been well over a dozen years since she’d played any kind of videogame, at that moment, Applejack felt sixteen years old again and almost for a second wondered where she’d put her Dualshock. That feeling intensified when she felt something tug within her soul, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Something so ephemeral, it almost made her wonder if it had actually happened, except for that that she knew it had. She looked down in her hand, and in it was a mote of orange light, faint but present. She looked up at the vanishing figure, and her mind swam with the possibility. A word finally came to her lips. “Sunset?” “C’mon, Lieutenant, we gotta go!” The moment ended as quickly as it came, as she felt Shipshape pull her to her feet. “We gotta get out of here while we still have the chance! Doc’s dead and half of our own gals are down!” Applejack pulled from her grasp. “But we—” “Look, Jack, I don’t know what the fuck just happened,” her fellow SEAL told her, “but whatever did just saved our fucking bacon and I’m taking that as a sign to get the fuck out while we still can!” Applejack looked at the ruined scene, the dead Octos and some of her own troops grabbing the bodies of the Italian soldier and Redcross. As a general rule, Americans didn’t leave their dead behind and that wasn’t about to change now, especially when “the dead” included fellow human warriors. “Let’s go,” Applejack said, feeling the moment – and the magic – pass as quickly as it had come. *** As she finished her story, King looked at her quietly for a second and said, “You know, when I was a kid, I loved the Lord of the Rings. Filled with tales of knights and elves, magic and swords, that kind of shit. That’s the same thing I’m hearing now, Lieutenant.” “With all due respect, Admiral, I stand by what I said.” Applejack told him. She, of course, had left out the magic part, as well as what she had said. In hindsight, there was no way it could have been Sunset. The last known place where she’d been had been at the portal, which meant that she’d probably gone back to Equestria. Given that in the years since the portal had been closed and that Princess Twilight had never tried to contact any of them, that was probably the reason why. Besides, Applejack knew that of everyone that had backstabbed her, it had been her betrayal that had been the worst. Of all people that Sunset – if it had really been her – could save, Applejack’s name would probably be somewhere beneath that of murderers, slavers and worse. “I know you do,” was all King said. The two looked at each other, with Tempest and Capper looking at both of them before Applejack finally found the words to ask a second later: “So what now, sir?” King gave another mirthless smile. “In an hour there will be a COD here to drop off intelligence and pick up passengers headed off the ship. You’re going to be on that plane.” “So, I guess you plan to relieve me for cause?” “No,” the admiral replied. “You’re going to the Mountain.” He then dug into a pants pocket and pulled out something, tossing it to her. “Oh, and you’re going to need these.” Applejack caught the object – a small box – and opened it. Inside were two golden oak leaf collar devices – the symbol of a United States Navy lieutenant commander. A few hours later, Applejack sat in a seat onboard a Royal Navy CMV-22B Osprey headed towards HMS Cormorant, the British base at Gibraltar. From there, she would take a helicopter to the US Naval Station at Rota, Spain, then to the US mainland. She was now dressed in wash khakis, the only uniform she had that would accommodate the pins of her new rank. She was leaving her platoon behind, though thankfully not for long. They would ultimately rejoin her stateside, as both Naval Special Warfare Command and US Special Operations Command believed that it was not in the best interests for the platoon to change commanders just yet. But for now, she was alone on the aircraft, headed back to a home country she hadn’t seen in three years. She closed her eyes, hoping to get some shuteye for the flight. She was going to need it. Applejack climbed off the guy she’d just slept with. She didn’t know him other than that he was German, hot and available; she vaguely recalled him saying he was married, but she didn’t care and clearly neither did he. Maybe if the war hadn’t happened, then she would’ve cared. But when you were a special operator, you lived for today, because tomorrow might not come. Relationships had become meaningless to her anyway, given that either he or she or both would be dead after tomorrow’s mission. They had to hit an Other stronghold just outside of Berlin, and it was a combined SEAL/KSM operation. “But it didn’t go well, did it?” Applejack sat up in bed and looked at the teenager standing across from her. “No. He got his head blown off by a heavy plasma blaster, I was told. And when I went to the funeral, his wife thanked me, even knowing I slept with her husband, for giving him one last moment of joy before he died. How’s that for fucked up?” A sad look came over her face. “And now, he’s as gone as you.” “I’m still alive, AJ.” “No, you’re not. I’m imagining that someone I loved like a sister is still alive, but it’s my mind working through the dream. For one, this is a lucid dream, so I’m in control. And two, you’re still a teenager.” “Dreams can be like that, you know.” “Yes, you’re right – and then I’ll be awake and you’ll still be gone. Assuming that wasn’t you that saved me the other day.” Sunset didn’t answer that. “You were never this dour when I knew you.” “I’ve also left a trail of bodies behind me, both the bad guys and the ones I cared about. The latter ones never came back. One of them even proposed, did you know that? I accepted…and then the next day he got his heart literally blown out of him by an ISIS sniper.” “I’m sorry to hear that.” “So am I. But I’m still here, no matter how much blood I have on my hands. And you’re probably in a better place.” Sunset gave her a smile. “Maybe, maybe not. But that doesn’t have to be that way – for you, that is. We can save the world, AJ. We did it before, we can do it again. The key is my old journal in Canterlot. It’s the first step in bringing us all back together again.” “Yeah, as if that book is still intact. You do know that most of that area is an Octo stronghold? Everything from Minneapolis to Hamilton to Buffalo is under Octo control. Assuming that your book isn’t buried under that weird organic coral and crystal they use to build their structures, what makes you think that it’s still intact?” “Because I know it is. I can’t tell you how I know, but I know it is. Just like I knew you still feel guilty about what you did to me.” “I loved you like a sister, you know that? When we found out where you lived, I had you come live with us, because we had the room. And when I thought that you were Anon-a-Miss, I kicked you out despite Granny’s yelling at me. And to find out I kicked the wrong sister out of the house? And nothing I could do would bring you back?” Applejack looked at Sunset again, and while she wasn’t crying her face was one of eternal sorrow. “Forgive yourself, AJ. Forgive yourself and join the fight.” “Fighting is what I do best, Sunset. Forgiving myself? Not so much.” Sunset went over and hugged her old friend. “Then forgive yourself for my sake. Find us all. Start with the book, and go from there.” Sunset reached over and kissed her friend on the forehead. “The journey of a thousand miles always starts with the first step.” Applejack woke up with a start, realizing a second later that it had been turbulence that had brought her back, not anything else. Calling back from the cockpit, the pilot said, “We’re on last approach to the Rock, Commander. If you have anything against turbulence, you may wish to strap yourself in.” “Thanks, Letenant,” Applejack replied, using the RN’s pronunciation of lieutenant for the sake of the pilot. “How long do I have before my ride to Rota gets here?” “Control says they landed an hour ago and are just waiting on you, ma’am,” he informed her. “Thanks.” She reached for the strap and began to buckle herself in. Whether that dream – or her mysterious savior – was really Sunset or not, it didn’t matter for the moment. Applejack had a mission she had to accomplish and that meant going to the Mountain…and the fact that she actually had to go there filled her with a mix of anxiety, pride and dread. Whatever was going on, it was well above her paygrade. Maybe that’s why the admiral promoted her, she mused. > In the Hall of the Mountain King > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLUEMONT, VIRGINIA 110930RJUL30: Once, like Rome before it, Washington DC had been the virtual capital of the world. And now, like Rome, Washington had fallen. All that remained were destroyed, smoking buildings, wreckage and craters that were being filled by the Potomac River. Once the capital of the United States, the city, much like other American cities like New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Canterlot, were now memories of what had been in the days before the Others had invaded. Now, the ruined country was nearly split in half by the Others, its people scattered and reeling from the attacks five years ago. Yet America continued to survive, to plan and work towards throwing off the yoke of its invaders and dispensing out justice in Red, White and Blue. The bald eagle would reach towards the its alien enemy and tear its throat out, and with it, free the world. It would be a matter of time, blood and patience, but if that was what it took, that would be what the United States did. And the keystone to that was the Mountain. Originally a weather station built in the 1800s, Mount Weather had, over the years turned into a Civilian Public Service outpost during World War II and then later a command center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And now, since the destruction of the White House, it was now the home of the President of the United States, as well as the locations for many VIPs in the United States government. Officially just a collection of buildings on a mountain plateau just east of Berryville, Virginia, the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center was in truth a massive geofront, stretching down for a quarter of a mile beneath the surface, housing nearly all that had been lost to the US Government. Down in Sublevel J, the floor used by the military, Applejack sat in a lobby just outside of an operations center. Across from her, a bored Army private sat, typing away at a computer and wishing she were elsewhere – just like Applejack was. Slightly rested after a couple of days in Spain, she’d had enough time to unwind and prepare while at the base, even going so far as to get herself a new dress white uniform, which she figured she’d need for her trip to “the Mountain”. And now here she was, in new- and stiffly-starched dress whites, the neck collar choking her. Now she saw why most of her fellow officers preferred to wear the dress blues even on days when it made more sense to wear the whites – these things were murder. At the desk, the soldier answered the phone, then hung up just as quickly. “You can go in now, Major,” she told Applejack. Applejack briefly thought about correcting the soldier, then changed her mind. The world was already insane; how much more so would it be if the Army actually started to understand naval ranks? As she entered the room, she figured it for a typical CIC: screens everywhere, military personnel manning the stations or scurrying to and fro and in the center of the whole circus was a large round table where major figures from the government sat. Some she recognized; most she didn’t. But the man at the head of the table she did recognize: Sombra, the current President of the United States, the epitome of a scum-sucking politician if there ever was one, she told herself. He had been a wealthy campaign donor from Louisiana who had backed the election funds of then-President Kibbitz, and for it had been selected to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a cruel irony given that his fortune had been made as a reputed slumlord in his native New Orleans. He’d been out of town when the Others had attacked, and due to his position as an unofficial designated survivor, he had been immediately made the President of the United States despite having been thirteenth in line to the office. The fact that he’d been reelected to the office two years ago galled the hell out of her, especially given that she’d voted for his opponent, Senator Thorax. “And here’s the lady of the hour!” Sombra said as he got to his feet and welcomed her. “Welcome to the Presidential Command Center. This is where everything happens for the sake of the world. Welcome back to the Good Ol’ US of A, Commander, and thank you very kindly for your service.” Applejack kept a smile on her face, though she wanted to scream. Such a bullshit, pat introduction he gave, she could practically smell it rolling off of him. Small wonder the media had nicknamed him “the smoking president” – not just because he was attractive (even Applejack had to admit that for a man in his late fifties, he was, with his dark skin and slicked-back dark hair), but because “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. She shook his hand. “Thank you, Mr. President. It’s an honor to be here, sir.” Still with a smile on his face, he said, “You know, anyone ever tell you you’re a horrible liar, Cmdr. Apple? But we’ll talk about that later. For now, I think I have some important people you need to know.” He gestured around the room, introducing her to various people, mostly politicians, but more than a few general and flag officers as well, finally stopping once he’d circled the table. “Have a seat, Commander,” he told her. “Now, do you know why you’re here?” “I take it because of Operation PRETZEL DRAGONFLY?” He grinned and nodded sardonically. “Is that what we’re calling it? Funny, I thought the media referred to it as—” He gestured grandly, “—the Disaster at Rome. Did you know the New York Times referred to it as ‘Sombra’s Folly’, even though the Italians had most of the command on the ground there? Hell, the guys at CNN had even more colorful things to say about it. They called it ‘Sombra’s shitshow’.” He shook his head, chuckling. “I remember when the FCC used to enforce language violations on TV, but that’s neither here nor there, I guess.” He then looked at Applejack. “Yes, we’re talking about what happened in Rome – and how you got your ass saved by that mysterious figure. Don’t get me wrong; you earned your promotion for everything you’ve done. But, Commander, from your own words you were as helpless as a kitten in a cornfield, and yet this stranger swoops in like she’s a fucking superhero and saves the day.” He looked at a colonel standing by. “Screen Two if you please, Col. Roughrider?” On the screen in front of them, video clearly taken from a drone showed up onscreen. It showed the figure in the middle of combat against the Octos…and she was winning. “This was taken an hour after all forces were evacuated from Rome. That figure is still engaging the Others – and she’s kicking their asses. I spend all this money on the military budget and fuck knows how many billions more on the black budget and all of that is useless compared to one single person going in there and acting like the Goddamn Batman – a comic book character.” He pointed at the screen. “That person is very much real and very much a threat to the Others. “You are the first person he or she had personal contact with, Commander,” Sombra told her. “So you want to tell me what you know about the Queen of Knives?” Applejack looked at him. “The Queen of Knives?” “That’s what they call her.” Applejack turned to the new speaker – Wind Rider, a USN admiral and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A storied fighter pilot, he’d once been the commanding officer of the Blue Angels. Applejack remembered that Rainbow Dash had once followed his exploits while he led the legendary fighter squadron and it was something that Applejack herself had recalled when she had joined the service. But she never thought she’d meet him. “I’m sorry, sir?” “She was given the name two years ago when she first appeared in the provisional Japanese capital of Gifu.” On another screen appeared the same image of a figure in red, throwing knives as she had when she faced off against the Octos in Rome, doing the same amount of damage and saving lives. “The Japanese media called her Naifu no Joō – the Queen of Knives – after one of the comic books there. According to reports, she saved the life of the Japanese crown prince, whose evacuation helicopter had been shot down.” “Two months later, she appeared in Jakarta during the Octos’ offensive there.” The same person appeared on screen, this time swinging what looked to be an electrical staff, moving like lightning but tearing through the enemy as though they were paper. “She managed to buy time for the Indonesian and Philippine militaries to safely evacuate the town. But she vanished just as quickly as she appeared. Nevertheless, the Indonesian president promised the equivalent of twenty million dollars in US currency to the Queen of Knives as a thank you for saving their people. To this date the money remains unclaimed. “Mid-last year, while you were involved in the defense of Berlin, there was an Octo assault on the main military base in Brazil. Once again the local forces were overwhelmed, and once again, the Queen of Knives appeared out of nowhere and sporting new abilities.” The screen now showed the Queen, wielding a bow of violet energy, firing energy arrow after energy arrow, shooting what appeared to be Octo aircraft out of the sky. “This comes from Brazilian intelligence, who claimed that the Queen went after their aircraft, doing what the Brazilian Air Force could not. Ultimately they lost the base because of overwhelming numbers, but apparently the Queen made sure it was a pyrrhic victory for the Octos. “Lastly, back in January, the Octos hit the Russian Pacific Fleet at Vladivostok, clearly intending to take them out. Once again, the Queen appeared, and this time she was playing for keeps.” Video with Russian wording now appeared on the screen, with pictures of the Queen wielding what appeared to be two pistols made from black, smoky energy, and she fired as if she was a gunslinger from the old west, to the point where at one point she even twirled the pistols. Blasts from her pistols felled Octo forces left and right, and she moved like quicksilver, pirouetting around enemy emplacements to the absolute shock of the Spetsnaz troops that had been mounting a previously futile defense. “She managed to rally the Russians and when it was all said and done, they managed to capture one of their gunships. Shortly afterwards, she vanished again. We’re told there’s a Hero of the Russian Federation medal awaiting her in St. Petersburg at Government Center.” “All those honors and sobriquets and they don’t mean a damn thing to her. She has the whole Goddamn world grateful and ready to kiss her ass and she just vanishes like it’s nothing. And yet after all that, she speaks to you like an old college buddy,” Sombra said. “You, of all people in the world, Commander. Right now, it’s clear that you know something. You are the either the most important woman in the world at this very moment, or someone I should have thrown in the deepest corner of the darkest fucking prison I can find. I’m going to take a bet that it should be the former. So I want answers, Cmdr. Apple, and I want them now.” Applejack looked around the room at the variety of faces staring at her. All these years. All these years of a secret she’d kept and one she swore she would take to the grave, undone because of a potential coincidence. For all they knew, it wasn’t one Queen of Knives, but something like her platoon – a highly-trained group of women (or maybe men, there was no confirmation on the gender, after all) who was doing the clearly impossible. After all, before her unit had existed, there was the rumor of the White Tights, a mysterious group of highly-trained women that fought against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But Applejack had once been the Element of Honesty. And the world was headed towards extinction. She hated the man who demanded answers from her. She probably didn’t care for many of those around the table as well, and truth be told, even though she admired Adm. Rider, she felt somewhat betrayed by him at the moment, even though she knew he hadn’t done a thing to deserve that. Because she was Honesty, she knew that sometimes, telling the truth was the hardest thing in the world. But it still had to be done, even if it would come at a personal cost, because honesty was a valuable currency – and once lost, it was nearly impossible to regain. So she told the group everything. From the day she first encountered a bratty thirteen-year-old girl attending Canterlot County Junior High, to the days they fought at Canterlot High, to the period Princess Twilight came through the mirror to retrieve her crown and faced off against a girl who had corrupted to the point that she became a demon. That the otherworldly alicorn-turned-human gave five other human girls the magic to defeat the demon and save the world. “Wait – that video was real?” a woman in the room that Applejack vaguely remembered as being the Attorney General, asked. When they all looked at her, she said, “Look, my kid showed me that thing on YouTube way back when, but I thought it was a commercial for a videogame he wanted, okay? I had no idea!” “I don’t think anyone who saw that did,” Sombra said, templing his fingers on the table and looking shrewdly at Applejack. “Please continue, Commander.” Applejack then told them how they left the girl, who turned out to be a delinquent unicorn herself, in their care. About their years of friendship and how she too regained her own honor and courage, and fought to save a world she had grown to love. Protecting it from monsters like the Dazzlings or corrupted individuals like Juniper Montage and Gloriosa Daisy. And how all that had fallen apart because Applejack and her friends had been too stupid to believe that Sunset had told the truth. That she’d vanished, gone back to Equestria, and that after they had briefly explained their parts to Princess Twilight, that the way to Equestria had been closed for good. That their magic had vanished and they went back to being normal girls, with more regrets than the average teenager and a greater responsibility to keep everything hidden from the world. And that she hadn’t felt the pull of magic since…until the Queen had touched her. Once she was done, everyone looked at her, and she felt so small and fragile, like a giant could step on her and crush her under his heels. “If I had known this and been in politics back then,” Sombra said in a terse tone, “I would have every available force at my disposal crawling through every ass in Colorado probing for this so-called magic. Now, obviously I can see what she can do, Commander, but what do you have to back all this up? What proof do I have that you’re telling the truth?” “Because I’m Honesty,” Applejack told him. “Yeah, and I’m a unicorn obsessed with crystals who lives in a palace that looks a jewelry store vomited,” he commented back. “Put up or shut up – isn’t that what you military types say?” Applejack said, “I can’t do it anymore, sir. I thought I did when the Queen touched me, but…I don’t know. Maybe I was just remembering Sunset and imagined it. Maybe I’ve lost my mind or something like that. Maybe none of that matters.” “I see.” Sombra was quiet for the longest time, before he finally looked around the room and said, “Okay, NS personnel only. Anyone else, get out, go do your jobs and make sure my country is still running.” The room began to fill out, while only certain people remained in their seats. Once the room had emptied out, the man glared at Applejack. “I don’t know whether to call you a hero or a traitor, Cmdr. Apple. For over a decade you had secrets that were vital to the United States’ interest. You participated in actions on behalf of a foreign government and you committed actions that you had absolutely no right to. Any sane politician would be willing to execute you right now or throw you in a supermax prison and melt down the fucking key. But right now, I don’t have that luxury.” He got out of his chair. “I know you don’t like me, Commander. It’s clear on your face. Maybe you think you’re hiding it, but you are what you claim to be: Honesty, which means you’re an incredibly poor liar. Yes, I’m probably not the best politician ever, but keep in mind I never wanted to be one.” He leaned forward. “Do you know what they called me back in Nawlins? ‘King’ Sombra – Lord of the Slums. Yeah, I owned a bunch of rundown tenements and charged too much for rent from poor people, you don’t think I know that? But it got me rich and it got me right where I could get the ear of President Kibbitz. And do you know what I wanted? I wanted my Crystal Empire project to be cleared by the government. My own little fucking playground, where I could build an amusement park that would make me enough money to go piss right in the eyes of Disney and Cedar Park and all that shit! “But instead, I got offered Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. A fucking joke! How Goddamn important is HUD? I’ll tell you – not fucking much. Look at the fucking stuttering moron I have in that position right now! Readybuild? You think he can run a fucking government? Man can barely tie his Goddamn shoes, much less keep his wife satisfied! And so I left town just before Decimation happened. And next thing I know I have the Secret Service running up to my doorstep on the day I was considering resigning, telling me that Washington no longer exists and that congratu-fucking-lations, I’m now the Goddamn President of the United States.” He laughed bitterly. “Let me tell you, I nearly shit my pants at that moment. I came from a poor Baton Rouge family, don’t even know my real father, and now suddenly I’m in charge of 330 million lives? What the fuck? “So I’ve done what I’ve had to do. I’ve made deals with the devil in order to get where I am, and I’m going to do so again. Which is why I’m going to give you a personal pardon for whatever you’ve done in the past – and I’m ordering you to go find this Sunset Shimmer bitch, whether or not she’s the Queen of Knives, because 800 million lives depend on your little fucking unicorn.” Applejack sat in her chair, her arms crossed. Finally, she said, “Permission to speak freely, sir.” “That’s a negative,” Rider told her. “No, I want to hear what she has to say,” Sombra told him. “So yes, Commander, you can say your piece.” “You’re right, sir, I don’t like you. One of the properties you own outside of Louisiana was my family’s farm and you nearly drove us into the poorhouse a dozen times because of the fucking loopholes on the mortgage you had on the grounds,” Applejack hissed. “So for that, you can go fuck yourself. Sir. And no, I didn’t vote for you. In fact, I was hoping that Senator Thorax would stomp your ass in the election.” Sombra laughed. “Thorax? He’s a good man. He really is. One of the best I’ve ever met, and that’s why he’s vice president now. Because he keeps me honest.” Applejack blinked at that. “But I thought Nebbish was your vice president.” Sombra shook his head. “We haven’t made it public yet, but he cracked under the strain. Secret Service found him dead in the underground bunker at the Greenbriar last month. Put a pistol down his throat and pulled the trigger. I asked Speaker Lawpasser to step in, but she turned me down – said she didn’t want to end up like Nebbish. And even though we don’t agree on a single thing, Thorax, as I said, well, he’s an honest man and a true patriot; he put aside our differences to step in. And that’s why he’s vice president now. We’re going to make the announcement next week, once the furor from Rome dies down. Our country – our world – doesn’t need any further chaos than it already has. And believe me, we’re in trouble.” “I don’t understand, sir.” “Before you came in this morning, the Indians lost the INS Vishal and her battlegroup,” Rider spoke. “There’s nothing currently in the Indian Ocean and neither the Chinese nor the Thai can get to the Octo base they’re building in Antarctica right now. The lone satellite in the area is North Korean and they have reason to believe that the Octos are trying to destroy the planet’s ozone layer in order to kill every living thing in the world. Now, I have no idea what that scum-fucking little weasel in Pyongyang is up to, but I do know that whatever the Octos are doing in the South Pole? Can’t be good for us.” “Do the Thai or Chinese even have anything that can dent them? We’ve beaten them before, but it’s taken a lot of hardware and lives,” Applejack commented. “We were counting on the Vishal and her escorts to nuke the fuck out of them, to be honest – we handed over several glowsticks in order for them to do the job,” Sombra said. “And yes, that’s another secret that the world doesn’t need to know, another deal with the devil that I made. The world doesn’t need to know that the United States is arming its former enemies with nukes that they’re not supposed to have, because it’s either that or we can bend over and wait for our asses to get fucked without the benefit of lube.” Sombra sighed. “I need a Goddamn drink. I really do. Too bad my wife is a saint who won’t let me.” “So what now, Mr. President?” “You,” he said, “are going to report to Sublevel P. As of now, you’re permanently off the books. You don’t belong to the Navy, or Special Operations Command or to anyone. You and your little platoon are going completely black – you won’t exist. Your chain of command from now on is me, then Wind here and the subordinate of his special little shindig he’s putting together. Anything you have to add?” When she shook her head, he said, “Okay, get out of here.” Applejack nodded, saluted and said, “Fuck Six, sir.” As the woman left, Sombra looked at Rider. “You going to explain that?” “It’s a…term of art that DEVGRU has, basically ‘can do’.” “Okay, but fuck?” Rider couldn’t help but grin. “It’s an adulteration of phoque – the French word for ‘seal’.” After riding up to the cafeteria briefly on Sublevel D to grab some lunch, she went back to her room to change into her NAVPATs. After spending a torturous time in a dress uniform, it felt great to throw comfortable clothing back on. She then went back to the elevator and rode down to Sublevel P, getting off the elevator and running right into two heavily-armed Marines, both of which checked her IDs and gave her a hard time until they found out she was part of the Rome evacuation, after which she got thorough apologies and was waved through. She walked down the hall, seeing a bunch of blank doors until she hit a cross corridor and the symbol on the floor explained everything: it was the crest of the Central Intelligence Agency. “Cmdr. Apple?” Applejack turned to look at a man a decade older than her as he approached. Despite his hair having slight tinges of gray, he had a youthful face and a part of her started to think of things that she probably shouldn’t have, especially given that the man wore ACUs and had the rank devices of a US Army colonel. “Yes, that’s me, sir,” she said, saluting. Normally, Navy personnel didn’t salute while indoors, as it was policy not to do so while not wearing a hat – a cover – indoors, but she thought it was polite. “No sirs, please,” he said, offering his hand. “I’m probably not much older than you. Col. Shining Armor, Commander of Project FIRE AND RAIN. Have you had anything to eat yet? Heard they had you tied up with POTUS this morning.” “Thank you, sir, but I already did before coming over.” She relaxed in his presence, feeling better, as he seemed to be the type of easygoing officer – which probably meant he was extremely lethal in combat, the kind of soldier she liked. “Ate at Cafeteria D.” “You might want to try the small cafeteria on Sublevel M next time,” he told her. “Cook there’s a Canterlot native like both of us, so he knows how to make that famous Canterlot-style BBQ.” “You were from Canterlot, sir?” “You can just call me Shining. I guess you’re Applejack?” “Jackie’s fine, sir – uh, Shining.” He laughed. “Yeah, I know, I’m not as stuffy as other full birds. Some of my colleagues always wondered if I should’ve been an Air Force colonel instead. Anyway, yeah, I’m originally from Canterlot, like you. Was originally in the National Guard, stationed at the Joint Reserve Center just outside of town until Decimation happened. Lost my wife, daughter, parents and kid sister in that mess.” “I’m sorry to hear that.” “It’s okay – it’s in the past now,” he said with a slight catch in his voice that said it wasn’t entirely in the past for him. “Besides, my current fiancée makes me smile. Anyway, you know why we’re here, and now that you’re onboard, you probably know more than I do about all of this. By the way, good call on chewing out President Sombra.” “You saw that?” “I was in the back of the room when it happened. And yeah, I voted for Thorax as well, so I know how you feel.” He gestured towards down the hall. “Anyway, if things are going to happen, we need to head back to Canterlot, which isn’t going to be easy, safe to say. But since you’re a native like me, I will need your advice.” “Shining, I’m a SEAL, not an OPS officer. I shoot tangos and break things, not come up with battleplans.” “Trust me, I get you. I’m a field guy myself, but for this Project, everyone’s doublehatting. I’m going to be overall field commander, even though we officially report to the Admiral.” He opened a nondescript door, whose only marking was FAR PLANNING GROUP. As they entered the room, a woman in a business suit strode up to him; she had long cerulean hair, piercing eyes the same color as Applejack’s own, and skin like dark honey. She handed him a tablet and said, “Okay, here are the current assignments I need you to clear. There’s also something that we just got back from the AO, so you’ll want to look at it. Oh, and lastly, I just came off my period, so we’re going to fuck like rabbits tonight, okay?” Applejack laughed while Shining groaned. “Seriously, you couldn’t keep that part under wraps?” he asked the newcomer. “Oh, but honey, you like it when I—” He started turning red from blushing and she grinned. “Oh, my dear, precious little boy scout – don’t ever change,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. She then turned to Applejack, offering her hand. “And you must be our unicorn hunter. Hi, I’m Chrysalis. I’m the CIA liaison for this project, as well as the INTEL officer. I also run – and sometimes run with – the Changelings.” “Nice to meet you. Jackie Apple,” Applejack said, introducing herself. “You can just call me Chryssie. Anyway, before you ask, yeah, the Changelings: the CIA’s wetworks group. We’re the nasty bastards, doing everything from spying to assassinations, poisonings to torture and all the stuff our government officially disavows. The President wants to put serious muscle behind this, so guess what? Your folks are the ones who break things, and we’re the ones who people will wish we broke things instead.” “That doesn’t sound good,” Applejack admitted. “It’s only illegal if you get caught and Congress hasn’t approved it,” Chrysalis stated. “Anyway, now that you’re here, you guys are going to want to watch this. A couple of my Changelings managed to sneak a message out of Canterlot, and this is what we have. We have it onscreen over in the conference room.” She led them over to a small conference room, where she pressed play on a computer. On the screen was a young man who looked like he’d seen better days. He was carrying an outdated rifle and the look in his eyes was of one who barely trusted authority. “My name is Button Mash, and I’m speaking on behalf of the Canterlot Militia. Normally I wouldn’t bother with you assholes since you abandoned us, but maybe the thousands of people still trying to survive in the hellhole our city’s become doesn’t mean shit to you jackboots either.” “What’s he talking about?” Applejack asked Shining. Chrysalis paused the video. “During the Decimation, any city with a population of over a million people was hit. We had to abandon a lot of people in order to protect the majority of the country, and needless to say, some of those that got left behind got a tiny bit pissed as hell. According to some intel gathering from the Changelings, there’s less than 7,000 left in the ruins of the city.” That said, she continued the video. “Anyway, the reason I’m contacting you government thugs is because we have reason to believe that the Octos are doing something around the ruins of Canterlot High. I don’t know why, but they seem to think it’s important, and numerous rips have been seen there.” “Rips?” “The rifts they cause from their home dimension to get here,” Shining explained. “Technically they’re wormholes, but they look more like bloody rips in the spacetime continuum. I don’t know all the math. My sister was good at that stuff, but she never made it out alive.” Mash continued. “I don’t know what’s going on there, but we’ve sent my best scout to check it out. Now all I need is for you assholes to come and smash the place before the Octos kill more of us! Also, we want people evacuated out of here for their own safety.” The look in the man’s eyes softened. “Some of the women here are pregnant, like my wife, and I don’t want Sweetie Belle—” “Sweetie Belle?” Applejack gasped. “You know her?” Shining asked. “She’s the younger sister of a girl I used to know in school.” A girl who was once one of my best friends, she silently added. She thought about it for a second, then said, “Request permission to go on this mission.” “We still have to plan this mission – and frankly, we need to get your people up to speed. The Changelings are already in position.” “Shining, this is war, not spycraft – they might be good at what they do, but you know there’s violence and then there’s war. Besides, Sweetie Belle knows me. And because of that, I might be able to reason with this Button Mash guy. Show him that the military’s here for everyone, and we’re doing the best we can to protect the nation and the world. We could get in with their leadership, which is the real important thing, I presume. Besides, if this is going down at Canterlot High…that’s where the portal to Equestria is. We need access to that location.” Shining was silent for the longest time before adding, “This is going down pretty fast, Jackie. Your folks might not be ready.” “We’re SEALs – we were ready yesterday.” “Okay, point made. Plus, if we can get this militia on our side, maybe it’ll make things better for us. Lord knows the war can’t get any worse. But if we’re going to do this right, that means we have to do more than just a military operation. This is going to have to be a humanitarian one. Chryssie?” She smiled as her fingers danced over the keyboard. “Already on it. There’s a combat support hospital – the 10th CSH – seconded to the 4th Infantry Division. They’re down in a small town in Oklahoma by the name of Ponyville. They’re set for that kind of stuff and can probably field a small medical team to help us.” “The Fourth? That’s Col. Spearhead. I know that guy,” Shining said. “Bet he doesn’t have as cute a tush as you do,” Chrysalis said absently. “Anyway, they’re our best bet.” “I’ll make some phone calls and send some emails out to get what we need to get started,” Shining said. “We’re also going to need someone with planning skills out here. You don’t have a problem if I go with an O-5, do you, Jackie?” “Gotta have someone to argue with,” Applejack said with a grin. “In the meanwhile, anything I can do right now?” “Yeah, get settled in and then get your folks ready. We got word from the Enterprise that they just left this morning and should be here by mid-next week. If everything pans out, I’m going to want us in the air and on the way to Ponyville by Friday.” > A Heart of Stone Can Turn to Clay > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 120613SJUL30: “Major?” A woman in camouflage woke up, ignoring the aches and pains of where she’d slept – on her desk. There were so many people that were in worse condition than she was, that she could afford to deal with this. A young woman – the kind of young woman she was once – in military camouflage came in with a tray of food. It took a few more minutes before she realized that the girl had probably just barely graduated high school – literally the kind of sweet young thing the woman had been once, and certainly not the kind of person that should’ve been in uniform. The war didn’t give us much choice, however, the major’s thoughts reminded her. The private, unaware of her commander’s stream of consciousness, set the tray on her superior officer’s desk. “Ma’am, I grabbed you some breakfast from the chow tent. Also, the colonel would like to see you when you get a chance.” “Thank you, Private,” came the grateful response. A second later, she remembered to append that with, “Dismissed.” As the private left, she walked over to the mirror to make herself presentable, making sure her own uniform wasn’t too wrinkled. She re-tied her hair into a bun, then made sure her oak leaves were on straight; they were so new they still tended to slide around on the clasps. The girl she had once been looked at the visage of Maj. Fluttershy, US Army Medical Corps. She was long past the days when she’d been an idealistic young teacher ready to usher on the future of the world. That seemed like a broken dream now, a dream shattered that day five years ago when the Others came and in the span of days reduced eight billion lives on Earth to maybe a tenth of that. Since that day, there were no more science teachers with idealistic dreams or anything of the sort. There was only the militaries of the world and a desperate struggle for survival. There was no time to hope for the future, just the immediacy of now. Not for love (she hadn’t seen her husband in weeks), or birthdays (her thirtieth had passed two weeks ago without fanfare) or celebrations (her birthday gift from the colonel had been a fast-tracked promotion). Nothing left of what had made humanity grow, not since that fateful day five years before. Sure that she was now presentable, she walked back to her desk, quickly ate her food, then retrieved her gunbelt and sidearm. While they were mandatory at virtually all times, she liked to take them off when she was in her office. It reminded her of the person she was long ago, long before the Others… ...long before she betrayed a friend. A short walk later, she arrived at the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division. After the prerequisite salutes, she was finally directed to the conference room where the colonel was. “Maj. Fluttershy reporting as ordered, sir,” she said as she entered. A man a decade older than her with two-tone blue hair and lightly-tanned skin gave her a smile as he looked up from his digital chart table. “Fluttershy, come in! Have you had anything to eat?” “Thank you, sir, but I already did before coming over.” She relaxed in his presence, feeling better. There was an old Army saying that a commander was a father to his troops, but when it came to Col. Spearhead, he tended to be more of an older brother type. He had lost his wife and children in Chicago back during the Decimation and it had only been years of hard living that had brought him around to a semblance of his old self. “I bet you’re wondering what I called you in here for,” he began. “We got a call from the brass; they’re going to execute an operation of vital importance – a humanitarian mission back to Canterlot. Since you’re a Canterlot native, I’ll need your advice. I’ll also need you to select some of your personnel for this mission, as well as an officer you recommend to lead them.” “Canterlot?” The name felt like ancient history to her, a time long forgotten in the past. She’d lost so much that day and she tried to forget it. “We just received this bit of intel this morning.” He looked at her. “This stays secret, understood?” She nodded and he went over to his desk and pressed a button on a projector. In the center of the room, a blue field of light was thrown against the wall as Button Mash’s message was played for the pair on hand. Fluttershy watched with vague interest until one particular name came up. “Sweetie Belle?” Fluttershy gasped. “You know her?” Spearhead asked. “I knew her older sister back in high school,” Fluttershy said, though she chose not to elaborate further. She thought about it for a second more before saying, “Sir, request permission to go on this mission.” “Denied,” Spearhead said immediately. “I need my most capable doctor here, and that’s you.” “Sir, she knows me. And if we’re trying to make inroads with this Button Mash guy, having someone who knows Sweetie Belle taking personal care of her might get our foot in the door. Besides, those people might need a doctor, and as you said, I’m the best you have.” Spearhead was silent for the longest time before adding, “You’re not field capable.” Fluttershy was just about to protest when he added, “But you bring up a point: if we can get this militia on our side, maybe we can take Canterlot back. I guess it’s worth a shot.” “I agree. Anything else I should know, sir?” He nodded. “Yes, check back in a couple of days; I’ll have more information on Monday. And that should do it for the first thing.” “The first, Colonel?” “Well, there is something else I think you might be interested in,” he said as he walked to the closet door and opened it. Fluttershy gasped in shock. Then she lost all military decorum and rushed into her husband’s arms, kissing him passionately. With a warm smile and a bit of hidden envy, Spearhead voiced, “Take off until Monday, Major. That’s an order.” He then stepped out of the room to give them some privacy. “Flash!” she cooed when they finally came up for breath. “How?” “I tried to get here in time for your birthday,” Cpt. Flash Sentry, US Army, told her, “but then I got dragged back to assist with the evacuation of Paris.” He looked at her sadly as he recalled the location where they’d had their honeymoon. “It’s gone now. The Louvre, the Arc d’ Triomphe, the Tower…. There’s nothing left but memories.” “But I have you still,” she said, kissing him again. “Those memories will be alive so long as we are.” He smiled at that. “And I plan to live to see the end of this war. And speaking of which,” he said, looking at her rank pins, “Made major, I see. I knew you would outrank me the moment you got into that medical program.” “Yes,” she replied as she put her arms around his neck. “And as your superior officer, I have orders for you. I expect you to take me out to dinner in town, then back to my apartment and make love to me until we’re both exhausted. And I expect those orders to be followed to the letter, is that clear, Captain?” In response, he swept her off her feet and said, “I’ll do my best, ma’am.” Ponyville was a small town in Oklahoma that the 4th Infantry Division had relocated to after the destruction of Fort Cloudsdale. A small place known mainly for its apple farms and the fact that Interstate 40 ran a few miles to the south, it had somehow managed to survive untouched by the war. Still, half the population ran for their lives, and since then, the Army had taken over almost all of the abandoned buildings in town. Thus, Ponyville had survived, and was now even slowly growing as it was becoming more of a military town than the orchard paradise it had once been. Dinner that night had been at one of the few restaurants still remaining in the “Armytown” side of Ponyville, a little Italian place called Bella Note. Granted, it was a glorified pizza joint that had crappy Italian food and the beer was watered down, but the dessert was okay. Plus, the person who ran it, a woman by the name of Chablis, was friendly enough. But that wasn’t the point: for the first time in weeks, Fluttershy got to spend unadulterated time with the man she loved, and they lived that small segment of their lives for all it was worth. The night got even better after dinner as they took a walk in the moonlight and sat by the small lake, looking at the moon floating over the waters and remembering the better times they had, holding hands and acting like foolish children a decade younger than they actually were. And now they laid in each other’s arms, sweaty and spent, just the two of them. Lying there, his arm draped over her breasts, Fluttershy could feel the intimate closeness of him and despite everything, she could forget just for a second that there was a fight for humanity on. Flash was first to speak, breaking that metaphorical spell. “So, we’re going back to Canterlot,” he stated with the same reluctance she felt. “Are you ready?” “You’re going?” she asked with surprise. “Sorta. My mission is to provide security for the humanitarian mission going there, but I didn’t know that you would be in charge. I guess at this point, worrying about fraternization regs is pointless, or the Colonel would’ve put a stop to it.” “Oh.” She was quiet for a few seconds – wondering whether this was the real reason the Colonel was reluctant to let her go on the mission – before she asked, “Do you remember Sweetie Belle?” “Rarity’s little sister? Not really; I barely remember Rarity aside from the fact that she had a crush on me.” Flash paused, as if in thought. “But that guy, Button Mash? I remember him clearly.” Fluttershy sat up, looking at Flash. “You knew him?” “Yeah. One time, Rover tried to steal Button’s phone and I stopped it. Maybe he’s appreciative or maybe it set him in the direction of being an anti-government militiaman. I don’t know.” “At least he’s on our side,” Fluttershy mused. “No hon,” he told her. “He’s fighting a common enemy. That doesn’t mean he’s on the same side. I can only hope his words about Sweetie Belle being pregnant are true, and that he’s more focused on getting her to safety than getting us in his gunsights.” Fluttershy suddenly went silent and Flash asked, “What did I say?” She looked at him with sad eyes. “Do you remember our plans the weekend Decimation happened?” “I do. We were going to go away for the weekend, just you and me, why?” Fluttershy got out of bed, her taut nude body glistening in the moonlight streaming through the window. As she ran her hands down her torso, she said, “That weekend I was going to tell you that I wanted to start a family.” The following Monday, Fluttershy notified her subordinate that she’d be working on a special assignment until further notice. Her XO, Cheer Belle, took it in stride and said she’d hold the unit together until Fluttershy got back. It didn’t help, however, that she was to take a company’s worth of medics. From there, she reported to Spearhead, who told her she had the next two weeks for her and her subordinates to do nothing but re-familiarize themselves with being soldiers and not just medical practitioners. It was going to be hard and arduous, but a necessary task nonetheless. “And I’ll need you to be ready, Fluttershy,” Spearhead told her. “When I told you this mission was high priority, I didn’t realize how serious this is. We just got the call from the Mountain, and this mission has been given top priority. So much so, in fact, that if it wasn’t for the fact that we can’t spare the manpower, you wouldn’t be going – I would.” Both junior officers understood the severity of that statement. “How much hotter are we talking, sir?” Flash asked him. “The President has authorized the use of the SEALs for this operation,” Spearhead explained. “A group from SEAL Team SIX.” The moment he said that, even Fluttershy understood what that meant. Over the past five years, the special operations community had thrown themselves into the worst of the fighting against the Others, and the number of casualties was immense. So oftentimes, the special warfare operators were the best of the best, and in a war where being a special operator of any service was likely to get you dead by your next breath, SEAL Team SIX stood at the pinnacle of that special warfare group. So sending troops from that group underscored just how serious the task was. “Anything else I should be aware of, sir?” Flash asked him. Spearhead nodded. “Make sure that you have your best people training your wife and her personnel,” he said, gesturing to Fluttershy. “I’m sure you want to make sure that she comes out of this alive.” A sad look crossed his eyes as he added, “You never know how much it will hit you when there’s not even bodies to bury.” “With all due respect, sir,” Flash said, “I know Flutters is special, in ways I can’t even explain. And I know she can do incredible things when she puts her mind to it. It’s part of the reason I fell in love with her.” Fluttershy in the past would’ve hidden behind her hair and turned twenty shades of red at the attention. But the woman now just gave her husband a loving smile, then turned back to the colonel. “Personally, I think I got the better half of the deal,” she said with a grin. “Okay, you two, you’re making me jealous. Now get out of here; I’ve got work to do and you’ve got some refresher courses to teach our medics, Captain. Dismissed.” As they departed the building, she said, “Okay, I’m going to round up my team and you do the same with yours. How do you want to handle this?” “How do I want to handle this?” Flash asked. “Hon, you’re the one in command here. You outrank me, remember?” “Yes,” she said with a lascivious grin, “but I can’t exactly order several hours of vertical pushups in the nude with you, can I?” He laughed and she got her point across. “Get a training regimen together, and we’ll start at 1000 hours. That work?” “1000 hours – roger that, Major.” Fluttershy had always thought herself to be in decent shape. A long way from the days when she struggled to run a mile, having to keep with others during PE. Since her semi-involuntary commission into the Army, she’d had to keep up with military regulations, and that meant physical fitness standards. She often wondered if the girl she was five years ago would look upon the woman she was now with mild envy; she was in far better shape than she’d been when she was twenty-five, nevermind when she was in high school. Of course, that was before she’d opted to go run up the hill with 1st Lt. Sweet Bolt, a friend of hers assigned to the Headquarters Company. Now she felt like she did back when she was a student in Canterlot High, barely able to keep up with the others and only passing because of the friends she had at the time. “Wow, Fluttershy, you are out of shape,” teased Bolt. The two reached the top of Evergreen Hill, a mere 1.5 mile run from the base of the village. The woman stumbled over to the bench and collapsed in it. “Tell me about it. And to think I used to be worse than this.” Bolt passed over her water bottle and the older woman nearly drank it in one draft. “Easy on the drinking, Major. We still have to get down the hill, you know.” “No, you can carry my corpse down, Lieutenant,” she gasped. “And no, you can’t have my husband – I want him entombed with me whether he’s dead or not.” Both women laughed at the gallows humor. They sat there for the longest time, watching the birds dart in and out of the tree, watching another infantry company run by, before Bolt asked, “You ever seen an Octo before?” Fluttershy nodded. “I remember seeing one during Decimation. I was giving my class a test at the time, and then these black-and-teal cephalopod-like creatures with six eyes rained down from a giant tear in the sky. And the moment they reached the ground, they pulled out their weapons and started firing at everyone and everything. My boss, a woman named Cheerilee, was killed instantly; I think one of my friends, a fellow teacher named Derpy Hooves, was killed as well. But one or the other of them pushed me to the ground and so I got away, because I played dead.” Fluttershy was silent after that. “Shortly after that, we had to evacuate Canterlot and due to the urgency of the situation, any police officer who met the physical fitness standards was automatically drafted into the Army, and after a quick familiarization, Flash was assigned to the 4th Infantry. The rest of us civilians were pretty much left to our own devices at the refugee camp being built in Apple Corners, but when they found out what my degree was in, they offered me a commission if I’d go do a year of medical training to be a doctor. At the time, we were just realizing how badly we’d been hit, so we weren’t sure if I would be needed, but I said yes because I wanted to help. I studied for a year with a retired doctor who was a military vet and he taught me how to take my knowledge and training and reapply them. After that, I was assigned to the 10th CSH before we became permanently attached to the 4th Infantry. What about you?” Bolt took a drink before she began. “Military brat. We were stationed in Germany and I’d already been approved for a commission to West Point. The Others hit Kaiserslautern with everything they had and pretty much destroyed the military community there. Most of us were evacuated from KMC immediately, and since I had already been tracked towards West Point, I had special classes set up there to finish up my high schooling before I started the Academy proper.” “I’m sorry to hear about your family.” “Yeah, but at least my kid brother survived. He and his family live in Omaha.” She chuckled. “When I was a kid, I remember reading somewhere that Omaha was the 44th largest city in the country. Now, it’s number ten.” She got back up to her feet. “Well, let’s get down the hill and we can work on weapons familiarization. I know you’ve trained on the basics, but I doubt you’ve kept up on them other than your pistol, haven’t you?” When Fluttershy shook her head, Bolt nodded sagely. “So this afternoon you and I can get some practice in so you don’t look bad in front of your medics.” “I’d...rather not, Boltie. I’m somewhat of a pacifist when it comes to these things, plus I’m a firm believer in the Hippocratic Oath and the Geneva Conventions.” “Major, the Genevas don’t apply to extraterrestrial combat, and you know it. And the Hippocratic Oath means ‘first do no harm’ to your patients, not to those trying to kill them.” Bolt sighed. “I understand your concerns, Flutters, I really do, but….” “But?” The younger woman opted for a different tack. “Mind if I tell you about my fiancé?” The older woman nodded, and Bolt began. “I met Brass Flare during my first year in the Academy. We weren’t supposed to date while there, but … he and I kinda got around that,” she giggled. “We grew closer over the years, and just as we were assigned to our first units, we got engaged. I was over the moon, because I was with the man I loved, and nothing was going to go wrong! “Except that it did. On our first mission, we headed towards Seattle, or what was left of it. The plan was a focused effort to try to regain the area, then help the Canadians as we moved north towards Alaska. At least that was the plan. Instead, we got hit hard by the Octos, and their thrust vaporized the portion of the forest he was hiding in. I didn’t even have a body to bury. We were so stomped that our unit got disbanded and I was sent to work with the 4th Infantry.” Bolt sighed. “Did I ever mention that your husband has the same eyes as my Brass did? Makes me go all fuzzy in the good places.” “Yes, my husband,” Fluttershy reminded her with mock-possessiveness. “Eh, wouldn’t worry about it. There’s this guy in Charlie Company I’ve got my eye on anyway. But I’m serious about what I said. If you’re going with us, you need to know how to use a weapon, because there may come a time when pulling the trigger may be the only way to save your husband’s life – or any of our lives.” That night, sleeping in her husband’s arms, she dreamed. Teenage Fluttershy sat by the statue, dejected. It was the week before she would leave for college, and she hadn’t bothered to say goodbye to her former friends. Some that she was still friendly with, like Tree Hugger and Lyra Heartstrings, were definites. But not those she’d once been truly close to. Not those she’d once shared magical adventures with. And now that Sunset was gone, it was as though people were forgetting that magic had ever existed. And if that wasn’t enough, she remembered what Twilight had told them the last time she had seen them, after they had explained why she would never hear from Sunset again. “I’m never opening the portal again,” was Twilight’s response. “I thought humanity was like us. I was wrong.” Still, she insisted that Fluttershy keep the book. “Prove to me that I wasn’t, Fluttershy.” That had been the week before graduation. Fluttershy herself had tried the portal, but it was gone now and nothing was left but marble. Even Sunset’s old journal seemed to turn into nothing but a regular journal after that day. And Fluttershy was here, for some inexplicable reason, holding the book to her as if it was a talisman. I’m so sorry, Sunset, she thought, squeezing the book closer and tears forming in her closed eyes. You didn’t deserve what we did to you and I can never apologize enough. “You’ve apologized too much as is.” Fluttershy’s eyes immediately opened. She tried to wake up Flash, but he wouldn’t stir. “Wow, never thought you two would get together. I knew Rarity had her eye on him, but…well, I’m happy for you two.” Fluttershy turned her head in the direction of the voice, and in the darkness of her apartment a glowing being sat in a chair by her table. “Sunset?” the woman voiced as she got out of bed. The glowing girl frowned. “Do you mind getting dressed? Granted, I know what girl parts look like, but I’d rather…well, you get the idea,” Sunset said with a smile. “Although you do look good for your age. Frankly, you look like you have the kind of physique I’d expect on Rainbow.” Sunset snapped her fingers and a t-shirt and sweatpants appeared on Fluttershy. Sunset read the t-shirt and smiled. “Army? That’s surprising.” Fluttershy went over and hugged her old friend, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she sobbed, holding her friend for all she was worth. “I was cruel and unfair to you!” “It’s okay,” Sunset said. “I got over it.” That was not enough for Fluttershy, who continued to hold her friend for the longest time, crying hysterically and refusing to let go. Finally, Sunset replied, “I’m not going anywhere, Flutters. Not after I did all this to come talk to you.” At last, the woman released her embrace and looked at her youthful friend. Despite the golden aura, Sunset was still a teenager. “Why….?” the woman asked. “I’m not ready to discuss that just yet,” Sunset told her. “However, I’m here because of you, Flutters.” “Why me? And why are you still a teenager?” The answer came to her instantly. “Oh. This is a dream, isn’t it? This…this is a dream, and being here with your ex-boyfriend, my husband, is making me remember all the things I’d put aside.” “If that’s what you want to think, that’s your call, Flutters,” Sunset told her. “But that’s not the point. The point is, well, to quote that old movie, ‘We need to get the band back together.’ We need to save the world, one last time.” “I’m not sure we can,” Fluttershy admitted. “I don’t ever say it aloud, but…the day before Decimation, we had eight billion people on Earth. Now, they believe that we have 800 million, and even that might be a stretch. Humanity was murdered, and compared to that, what can we do?” Sunset looked at her. “Do you remember what my favorite song was?” Fluttershy shook her head; after all, it had been a dozen years ago and very little music was being made nowadays, so keeping track of people’s tastes from years bygone was pointless. Sunset chuckled at that and said, “You guys – Rarity especially – used to give me grief because I’d listen to the Classic Rock station; KSHZ 99.1” That immediately made Fluttershy remember. “Oh, now I remember! 99.1 KSHZ – ‘The Only Rock That Matters!’ You used to be into a lot of 70s music, but I never knew why.” “It was the only thing that played on the broken radio in the warehouse I lived in before I went to live with Applejack’s family,” Sunset explained. “But that’s not the point. What I meant was, do you remember my favorite song? Because if you do, you’ll know.” “I don’t understand.” “You will, in time. But what’s truly important right now is…I need you to find the others, Fluttershy. I need you to find them and bring them together. We can save the world before it’s too late, but we need to come together.” “But…how? I don’t know where they are or even if they’re alive, Sunset! We lost touch after you left and I don’t know about how they feel, but I grew to hate and resent them for what we did to you! I don’t even know where to begin!” “Find my old journal. I’ll be able to speak to you through that.” “But….” Fluttershy was going to say something, when Sunset raised her face to meet hers. “I’m not asking the Fluttershy I knew back then. I know she wouldn’t have done it. I’m asking the woman I see now and hoping she remembers our friendship enough to do so.” Sunset smiled. “Maybe then you can get rid of that guilt you’ve been carrying for so long, and you won’t have to name your daughter after me to assuage it.” “How did…?” “Because you were the most likely to do so, thus it was an educated guess,” Sunset said. “But I need you to get the journal. That’s the first step. In time, everything else will follow.” Fluttershy sat up with a shock, blinking her eyes. That was one hell of a dream. She saw the early rays of the sun stream into the apartment, and the clock said she had to get up in anyway. That was almost a dream I couldn’t take. I thought I’d…. The alarm went off, and as it did, the radio on the old clock went off. It was set to play the radio, in this case KLTM 102.7 – “Oklahoma’s Freedom Station”. It was a station that pretty much played whatever they wanted, because they were the only radio station left in this part of the state. At the moment, a song came on and it made her pause: “You can do magic, You can have anything that you desire Magic – and you know You’re the one that can put out the fire “You know darn well When you cast your spell you will get your way When you hypnotize with your eyes A heart of stone can turn to clay” Tears welled in Fluttershy’s eyes. She’d forgotten – she’d put so much away, put so much of it because she wanted to forget. But in doing so, she violated the Hippocratic Oath – to do no harm. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t taken said vow at the time; she’d violated it with someone she’d cared so much about. She looked at her sleeping husband, then to her uniform. I took an oath to do no harm and I took an oath to protect the innocent. I failed on both counts, she told herself. But I’m not going to fail again! If anyone had looked at the woman, they would’ve seen the brief corona of green flame that flickered around her. > Voices from On-High > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLUEMONT, VIRGINIA 150602RJUL30: One thing that had always been a constant with Applejack was that as far back as she could remember, she’d always been used to hard work and she’d always been used to getting up before the first rays of sunrise. Even when others in bootcamp or BUDS or just daily training bitched about getting up at the ass-crack of dawn, Applejack was already ready to do it. She had done it when working her family’s farm, or bootcamp or whatever. She was used to hard work and very little sleep and one could argue her body was now just made for that sort of thing. So now that she had the chance to PT outside of the geofront, she joined the FEMA security personnel, Marines and various hard cases whose job it was to be at the peak of physical perfection. The first day she worked out with them, they tried to take it easy on her, given that for the average female servicemember the physical fitness standards tended to be less than that of a male servicemember. That “handicap” vanished the next day as they soon realized that she was a SEAL, which meant she was required to have the exact same requirements as her fellow male SEALs – and those were much tougher than just about anyone present. A week later, they were struggling to keep up with her, much to her silent amusement. A few others, however, actually did; the fact that most of them were Marines was to be expected. Shining doing so as well at first surprised her, until he reminded her that he was a Ranger – Special Forces himself, but not to the level that she was. However, the real surprise was Chrysalis, who kept up with the pair with relative ease. “Why does that surprise you?” Chrysalis asked Applejack once they wound down. “I’m a Changeling – we’re trained much the same way as any SPECOPS person, because the amount of shit we do is pretty similar. Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m happy working for the Company, I’d probably have tried to see if I could try out for your little outfit. Besides,” she said, leaning against Shining, “keeping in peak perfection is great for our sex life.” “You just love telling everyone about that, don’t you?” Shining mock-accused her. “With a body like yours against mine? Can you blame me?” she laughed. “Okay, I’d say get a hotel you two, but don’t you have a house out in town?” Applejack asked. “Yeah. In fact, we’re probably going to hold a welcome BBQ at our place tonight, both for you and the newbie when she gets here,” Shining told her. “Oh, you got someone?” “Yeah. Former fighter pilot, got shot down during Decimation and lost her left leg. They offered her the chance to medically retire, but she said she wanted payback, so she settled for sitting behind an operations table. She came highly recommended from Col. Rolling Thunder, and I got the Admiral to clear it, so we should be good to go.” “What’s the name?” “Lt. Col. Lightning Dash or something like that; didn’t exactly recall the name. Obviously, she’s not at our level of physical activity and she’s got an artificial leg to boot, so she’ll probably be minding the store whenever we’re out in the field,” Shining said to them. “But apparently she knows her stuff and she’s highly qualified, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem.” “Just so long as she understands she can look at the merchandise but not touch, then that’s fine,” Chrysalis commented. “Little possessive, Chryssie?” Applejack joked. “Oh, I’m not talking about Shining here – I’ll just kill her if she tries anything,” Chrysalis said with a straight face. “No, I’m talking about the computer systems we have. I spent forever making sure they’re just the way I want them, so we wouldn’t have any IT nutbars fucking with them. If she thinks she’s going to come in all ‘Let’s do this in Linux!’ Air Force style, she has another thing coming.” “Well, I’ve got to do my daily shooting,” Applejack said, “so I’ll be there later.” “Shooting? Mind if I join you?” Chrysalis asked. “I need to keep up my quals.” “No, you’re just going to show off again, aren’t you?” Shining stated. When Applejack looked at him, she said, “She’s got the base record for a DMR. Pissed off some of the actual marksmen that are here, too.” “Hey, when a girl’s gotta pretend to be a bubble-headed British girl in order to seduce a French officer so she can get into a particular hotel room so she can be in position to assassinate an Iranian operative planning a hit in the hotel across the street, you have to be good, because generally you only get one shot, especially when you have to dispose of the rifle immediately afterwards and go back to screwing the Froggie even though we’re talking ugly city, because you need plausible deniability, you do what you have to do.” “That sounds suspiciously specific,” Applejack noted. “It pays to be flexible in my occupation – at no time did I mention said commandante was male, did I?” Chrysalis shrugged. “Let’s just say I retired from that part of the job after I met Shining and call it that, okay?” After about an hour on the range (to which Chrysalis, once again, showed off with her skills on a M38 SDMR), the two headed back to the office, where Shining was busy talking to a woman slightly older than Applejack. Unlike either her or Shining, she wore a flight suit, given that she still had some qualifications as a pilot even though she was no longer cleared for fighters. She had short spiky blonde hair in a hairstyle more often seen on guys and her honey-colored eyes scanned the room as if she had situational awareness perpetually turned on. “Ladies, I’d like you to meet Lt. Col. Lightning Dust, formerly of the 601st Air Operations Center.” “You can just call me Dusty or Dustball,” she said, pointing to her flightsuit’s name tag. Good to meet you.” “Dusty, this is Lt. Cmdr. Jackie Apple, formerly of DEVGRU; and Ms. Chrysalis, our CIA liaison.” “Hey, I heard about you,” Lightning said as she offered her hand to Applejack. “You were in that shitshow in Rome, weren’t you? We were directing some of the drones giving you air support. Glad to see you made it out okay.” “Yeah, thanks. Though I’m honestly looking to get some payback for Rome. Those bastards killed too many good men and women and made us walk away with our tails tucked under our legs. I’m going to make sure that shit don’t fly a second time.” “Yeah, I hear ya there. What I wouldn’t do to be behind the cockpit of a Raptor again, shoving ordnance down whatever serves for their mouths. Unfortunately….” She reached down and knocked on her leg, which sounded out a hollow noise. “Just ain’t in the cards anymore, I’m afraid. Still doesn’t mean I can’t tell people where to do the most damage – and believe me, I certainly intend to.” “Well, as long as you’re ready for the purple world, we should be fine,” Shining said. “Even if I’m not, I’m a quick learner,” Lightning insisted. “Well, I still have to do the rest of my checking in, so I’ll catch you guys later, okay? Nice meeting you two.” “Yeah, same here,” Applejack responded. “Well, let’s get back to the office,” Chrysalis suggested, “check on things, then we can go hit the commissary before we head to our place. Should give you enough time to head to your quarters to grab a change of clothing, if you want.” “Thanks, I really appreciate that.” As the pair arrived in the office, an alarm went off. “What’s that?” Applejack asked as Chrysalis darted towards her desk. “I have a report coming in from one of my Changelings,” Chrysalis said nonchalantly. “They use a particular encrypted channel that we’re fairly sure the Octos aren’t monitoring.” “Why’s that?” In response, the spymaster turned her monitor so that the other could see it. “It’s on the same frequency as old AM band radio waves. There’s enough of that still rebounding in the upper portions of the atmosphere that the Octos probably dismiss it as electromagnetic junk. And for the most part it is…except if you know what to listen for.” Across the screen was a bunch of radio signals, their frequencies and channels denoted by different colors and shades. Chrysalis slipped on a headset, then started clicking on each one, then removing them from the possible sources. Finally, she narrowed in on a particular signal. “Okay, I think I found it.” “How can you tell?” In response, Chrysalis reached over and turned on the computer’s speakers. A ragtime song rang out, both strange and oddly familiar at the same time. “Well,” she said with a grin, “unless Portugal the Man recorded a 1920s ragtime version of ‘Feel It Still’, I’m pretty sure I have what I’m looking for.” Tapping a few more keys, she began to speak into her mic. “This is Queen Bee. We are on signal isolation.” “Hey there, hot stuff,” a smooth voice on the other end said. “Like my newest tune? Gotta be the hit of 1926, dontcha know!” “I’m sure it is, CH. What do you have for me?” The voice on the other end switched from joking to businesslike. “Reports check out. This Button Mash dude has been trying to find ways to smuggle people out of the city, but they’re getting caught in the dead zone between the old city limits and the combat line just north of Apple Corners. Apparently his wife is close to term, so he’s desperate to get her out of here. I think he’ll work with us. Do you want us to approach?” “No, do not approach,” Chrysalis cautioned. “If he finds out we have forces within the city already, it might set him off. Things are precarious, and I don’t want shit to go south because his precious fee-fees got hurt.” “Well, you’re the boss lady; we’ll back your call.” “Good. Anything else I should be aware of?’ “Yeah, some rumors about hunting creatures the Octos have brought back from their homeworld or something like that,” was the response. “Might not be anything…but if it means they’ve deployed a new weapon or something worse, we should look into it.” “Then do so and be careful,” Chrysalis ordered. “I expect to see all of you alive when I get there.” “So you’re finally coming back out to play, huh? Knew you couldn’t live without me.” “More like you’re lucky I keep you alive, CH,” Chrysalis laughed. “Anyway, give my regards to the others and do what you gotta do. Secreta semper. Queen Bee out.” “Secreta semper – CH out,” came the response, then the line went dead for a second before classical music replaced it, hiding their tracks. Chrysalis slipped off her headset, then looked absently at the screen. “That can’t be good.” “Yeah, tell me about it. If they’ve got some way of getting to the survivors, that means there has to be a reason they’re using it there, whatever it is,” Applejack commented. “I wonder if they’re trying to clear out the city?” “Couldn’t they just level it?” “Not if they’re looking for the same thing we are,” Applejack said grimly. Chrysalis sighed. “Great, just fucking great. Okay, have a seat at a keyboard – you know how to type, right?” “Not a yeoman, but I’ll do my best, why?” “We need to get a report done quickly, and with staff still short, it’s going to be just you and me while Shining’s taking Lightning around. I want to make sure we get this to the intel community before we call it a day.” CANTERLOT, COLORADO 150821TJUL30: “Olympus, this is Athena. Do you read me? Over.” The voice came over the line as tinny and a little bit garbled, but was still overall understandable. Besides, the fact that it wasn’t in the best of situations gave the extra bonus of preventing them from being identified by voiceprint. In a battered room, Button Mash flipped a switch, bringing his station to life. “Yeah, Athena, read you loud and clear,” he said into the microphone. “What’s the sitch?” “The usual shit: we’ve got Octos crawling all up in our asses,” the person codenamed Athena replied. “Lost two people trying to recover the remaining medical supplies from Westside Hospital, but we managed to do so. But given that we gave as good as we got there, I guarantee the Octos are going to level the place soon. So if we’re going to get whatever’s left out of there, it’s going to have to be now.” “Fuck.” Button Mash groaned; he did not need this shit this early in the morning. “Okay, I’ll talk to Zeus and Hera and see if they can deploy teams to back you up. Should be worth the risk, and hopefully we can do this without losing anyone else.” “Fine, but I could just settle for a beer right now,” came the response. “You know if Pinch managed to get her mother’s old brewery working?” “You know the rules, Athena – no real names or locations in the clear. We don’t know if the Octos can understand us or what they can get from our traffic.” “Yeah, yeah, whatever. While we’re at it, who the hell chose Greek names? Why didn’t we go with something cool, like Cougar or Shark or something? Now as for me, I can see myself as a griffin or something, even though they’re fictional….” Despite the situation, he laughed; leave it to her to bitch about the trivial things. “Sure, whatever. Anyway, just standby for further instructions, Athena. Olympus out.” He cut the line and sat there for a few seconds in contemplative silence, running his hands through his hair. It was getting a little too long again, and he knew she hated that; she was probably going to insist on cutting it again. He smiled, however; she adored doing little things for him like that. It was just a part of their marriage…or what they would have, if they were technically married. Doesn’t matter to me, though, he thought to himself as he leaned back in his chair. I’ve got her and I’ve got her for life. He then got up from his chair and walked over to another desk, one that had a battered laptop as its centerpiece. The laptop was still running lines of code for a project, and it had been a small miracle that the thing, state-of-the-art five years ago, hadn’t yet overheated, especially from the code it was compiling. He would likely never achieve his dream of being a videogame developer, but at least he knew enough about code that he could put it to use to defend the lives here. And given the situation, life in Canterlot certainly needed defending, now more than ever. “Button?” He turned to see a vision of loveliness approach: fair skin, pale mulberry and dusty rose hair in a short pixie style, and the most gorgeous spring green eyes he’d ever seen. He remembered meeting Sweetie’s sister Rarity, and while she was beautiful, elegant and refined, Sweetie was stylish and outright sexy. He was lucky as hell that he had her. He walked over to her, embracing his love. “Oh, hey, honey, what’s up?” She gave him a loving smile, patting her sizeable belly. “The baby kicked, and I just couldn’t sleep anymore,” she stated. She then pouted and added, “But I feel a little guilty about not being out there where I’m needed.” “You don’t have anything to prove, love. I know you’re brave – everyone knows that. But sometimes remaining behind is the brave part. After all, someday our child is going to wake up to a world that’ll need peacemakers and people who forge the future. And someone once told me being a mother is the bravest thing of all.” She kissed him. “You are such a bullshit artist, you know that?” she giggled. “Hey, I managed to talk you into my life and my bed, right? Must be doing something right.” She shrugged. “Hey, if you want the bloating, morning sickness and looking like a beached whale in the Rockies, I’ll be more than happy to trade with you,” she said with a grin before walking over to the workshop table, as something caught her eye. Looking at the laptop screen, she asked, “What’s this?” “Coding compiling for the onboard firmware that Lachesis and I are working on for Hera,” he explained. “If this works right, she should be able to get out of her wheelchair, at least for a little while. She deserves to, given that she saved our asses.” She frowned, not looking up at him as she continued to look at the screen. “Still with the codenames? We’re in private, Button – you know you don’t need to use them. “Sorry, trying to keep in the habit so I can get the others to do so,” Button admitted as he walked over to the coffee pot to pour something for himself and his wife. “Zeus is insisting on it, given that we’ve been too lax with radio discipline as of late.” “Fair enough,” she began. He was about to say something else, when she suddenly held her hand up. “Did you hear that?” “Hear what?” With the practiced, catlike movements of someone used to padding around, despite her girth Sweetie leaned up against the wall, pausing only to grab a pistol from a nearby shelf. Button took note of that immediately and rushed over to grab his carbine. As he joined her, she asked, “Can you hear it now?” “Jet engine, or sounds like it,” he told her. “But there hasn’t been anything around—” “—since Decimation,” she finished for him. She took a chance and peeked out the window, watching an arrow-shaped aircraft pass by in the sky above. “Aircraft of some kind.” “WEFT?” She grabbed binoculars. “Looks like a delta-wing with fuselage integration. Tail is minimal and based on the configuration, might be a ramjet,” Sweetie noted. “Too small to be a fighter. Drone, maybe?” “Why would anyone send a drone out here, unless—” The familiar whine of a plasma blast split the air, and a thick beam of energy lanced into the blue above, burning through the drone’s right wing and fuselage. The machine immediately plummeted from the sky, leaving a trail of thick black smoke in its wake as it headed towards the ground. “Get to the radio,” she told him, going back to the binoculars. “Call the Moerae and have them check it out.” “In broad daylight?” “We don’t have a choice,” she reminded him, lifting the binoculars to her eyes once more. “Looks like it crashed in Greenvale Park – if we can get some of our folks there before the Octos do, we might be able to set up an ambush.” “I don’t like this,” he told her. “I’m not sure we should bother chasing after a broken recon drone.” “That drone had to be there for more than just recon, Button!” she told him. “The government had to know it would be shot down, otherwise they would’ve flown it at night or used satellites. I think they’re trying to get a message to us.” “I hope you’re right,” he told her as he flopped back in front of the radio. “Olympus to Moerae. Are you in the field, over?” A few seconds went by before a new voice came over the line. “This is Atropos. Was busy tryin’ to get some sleep before we went huntin’ tonight. What’s up?” “We just had what looks like a drone shootdown in Greenvale Park. Need you to check it out.” There was a rustle in the background, followed by the voice again. “Shit, if we get there in time, we c’n set up an ambush, even if it’s daylight. Great thinking! Okay, we’re on it. Find out whatever group is on patrol right now, ‘cause we might need some backup.” He reached over for a notepad and looked at some scribbled notes. “Poseidon’s group is closest to you, so I’ll send him a note.” “Ain’t Aphrodite or Bia on right now?” “Yeah, but given the incident at the hospital it wouldn’t surprise me if Zeus is sending them to back Athena up.” “Well, it is what it is,” was the response. “We’ll make do and report to you what goes down. Atropos out.” “We’ll be waiting. Olympus, out.” He then went and grabbed his rifle once more, heading over to kiss Sweetie. “Okay, I’m heading over to talk to Zeus and Hera. I’m sure they already know about this, but we’re going to need coordination. You sit tight, okay?” “I can probably get there faster than you, even while pregnant,” Sweetie protested. “I’m not going to risk you or the baby,” he told her in a firm voice. “Besides, I have a feeling that I might have to get out there and take a look at that drone in person. Lachesis might know hardware, but I’m the software guy.” She gave him a worried look. “Just…be careful. You remember what happened last week.” “I’ll be careful, I promise,” he told her. “I’m not going to leave you as a widow, not now, not ever.” Kissing her one last time, he then headed out the door of their surprisingly-still intact apartment. Sweetie watched as he went to the ruined street, then started moving through cover. They were uncomfortably close to where the Octos had their base, and if they realized that, it would all be over for them. Her knuckles went white as she gripped the windowsill as she watched the man she loved risk his life – when she knew it was her job to do that, not his. She placed a hand on her stomach, briefly hating herself and Button for being stupid enough to bring a new life into this world, when there might not be a future for their child. She recalled last week and the bawling, horrified pregnant woman she had to hold as she delivered the bad news. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what Two-Tone told Eclipse the last time he saw her,” Sweetie said in a sad tone, trying to convince herself everything would be okay in the end. She never could. BERRYVILLE, VIRGINIA 151327RJUL30: It was amazing, sometimes, how some parts of a house felt so sacred. Sure, houses were for everyday life and for people to live and love in, raise their families and grow old in. But there were some parts of houses that seemed to be altars of a sort, memorabilia of a life gone from this world or something from the past. Applejack had known that sort of existence when she lived on the farm; her grandmother had dedicated a small portion of the living room wall to Bright Mac and Buttercup, the parents that Applejack had barely known before the car accident. And now, as she stood in the living room of the house that Shining and Chrysalis called home, she knew the presence of a de facto family altar when she saw one. She reached over and picked up the portrait, an image from 2023, or what seemed like a lifetime ago. In it was a younger Shining, posing for a picture, with a beautiful young woman next to him, a woman with beautiful olive skin, expressive violet eyes and long golden, rose and violet hair. The two between them held a bouncing little child, an adorable little girl with slight curls of violet and arctic blue framing eyes of light blue. She had her father’s eyes and her mother’s features, and as the three sat in the picnic area of Greenvale Park in downtown Canterlot, the future looked so bright and cheerful. “There isn’t a day that doesn’t go by when he doesn’t miss them,” a voice said behind her. Applejack turned to see Chrysalis, holding a beer for her. “I’m….” Applejack began to explain, but the other woman shook her head. “You looked as though you knew what that kind of experience is like. Losing someone before you’re ready to.” She took a swig of her beer. “I’m lucky. I grew up with a charmed life in Badlands, New Mexico. Only child, my parents were as fit as fiddles and I’m sure they were fine until Decimation; they weren’t happy about me joining the Agency, but I like to think they were proud in the end. But Shining….” She sighed. “He loved Cadance, more than he could ever say. And his daughter? Flurry Heart? I just look at her and…well, I know this is going to sound strange, but it makes me angry. Angry to see that I have a stepdaughter that I’ll never get the chance to know.” “Complex much?” Applejack asked as she accepted the beer from her coworker. “Sorta. I know if Cadance was still alive, Shining and I wouldn’t be together. Hell, if Decimation hadn’t happened, we probably would have never even met. But I’m not jealous – I don’t have a right to be, nor am I that petty. I don’t begrudge him the fact that he still loves them, and I know he loves me. After all, the heart is too big not to love what you’ve lost and yet still care for what remains. Maybe that’s what makes us human, which is more than I can say about the Octos.” She smiled sadly and asked, “What about you?” “Raised by my grandmother,” Applejack told her. “When I was nine, my parents were killed by a drunk driver. She survived without a scratch, but my parents…well, I remember there was a closed-coffin funeral for a reason. The woman that did it ended up serving a dime in prison, but it never felt like it was enough. My brother and I barely knew our parents, it felt like – and my kid sister doesn’t even remember them. I’d like to think they’re proud of what I’ve made of my life, but it’s not like I can ask them or anything, you know?” “Well, here’s to the dead: may they rest better than we do,” Chrysalis said, holding her beer up. Applejack clinked her bottle against the other and both downed it. “So, you hungry or anything? Shining’s almost got the burgers done, and we should probably rescue him from hearing any more of Dusty’s tall tales of when she was a pilot.” Applejack laughed. “Yeah, French whores always do that.” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “French whores?” “Navy nickname for fighter jocks, because they carry themselves differently from other aviators. Don’t know if the Chair Force calls them anything similar.” “I’m sure we can ask,” Chrysalis said as she ushered the SEAL towards the backyard, where Shining and Lighting were already mock-arguing over which service was the best. Applejack decided to stay out of the conversation; after all, everyone knew the answer to that – it was the Navy, obviously. Still, as burgers were had, friendships were established and old stories were told, Applejack’s mind went back to the picture of Greenvale Park and a younger Shining Armor, taking a picture with his wife and child and unaware of the horrors that were yet to come just two years later. Applejack had already long left Canterlot by that time; in 2023, she was already a SEAL and deployed to hot spots around the world, back when the enemies were still fellow humans and things seemed so much simpler than they were now. But that in itself was a lie, she knew – she’d betrayed Sunset and had her own regrets. There wasn’t really something “simpler” for her. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 151727TJUL30: Sitting by the wreckage of the drone, a USAF RQ-180 Wraith, Button was busy pulling open the broken bay doors. Sweetie had been right; this was a message sent by the assholes in the government. The payload had far better protection than the rest of the aircraft, a clear sign it was meant to be a cargo drop, not ordnance. He wished he could save the whole of the wreckage – Lord knew what they could do with kitbashing the electronics and firmware into something they needed, but with a ruin slightly larger than a minivan, that was a non-starter. Best to set explosives and take the whole thing out. “Hey, big guy, want to give me a hand with this?” Button turned to look at Bulk Biceps. Though he’d been a mountain of a man in his high school days, that always hid the gentle giant that he truly was. Somehow, adulthood had made him even bigger, and paradoxically even more gentle, almost timid. In many ways, he was like that one chiffon-haired girl that had been in the same age group as Bulk. Shutterfly, or something like that. In any case, in the time before Decimation, Bulk had run a hair salon and was known for his gentleness with his expansive female clientele. Now, he served as muscle for the resistance, though it was a passive sort of muscle, given that he was practically a conscientious objector. “Sure thing,” Bulk said in that strangely racking voice of his. In many ways, it was like that comedian from decades ago – Bobcat – but unlike that comic, in Bulk’s case it wasn’t an act or an attempt to sound off-kilter. It was just who he was. “Careful with that thing, Bulk. Could be valuable,” a third voice chimed in. Hearing that, Button chuckled; figured of all people she would be the most likely to freak out about it. He looked up into apple green eyes. “Bloom,” he said simply, acknowledging her. Apple Bloom looked back down at him, her long red hair tied back in a ponytail via a familiar yellow bow. Funny that she was in her mid-twenties and yet still rocked basically the same hairstyle she’d had all her life, it seemed. But the cold look in the once-vibrant eyes told a different tale. It was the tale of a woman that had gone through hell, the same as the rest of them. The look of a girl who had once dreamed of being an engineer or scientist, and was now one of his most cold and calculating snipers. She’d put her knowledge to math to use in a way far different than she’d done before, and many an Octo had fallen to her shots. Since Sweetie’s sister had gone long before Decimation and Bloom had stayed, she was the closest thing that his wife had to a sister – and thus he to a sister-in-law. Additionally, they were working on the exoskeleton that would let Hera walk again, so they worked well together. “That th’ payload?” Bloom asked him. “Yeah, funny how that worked. Those jackboots shielded and padded the thing in order to make sure that we’d get it,” Button told him. “We’ll have to open the box later when it’s safe, but I get the feeling that if they wanted to kill us, they would’ve just dropped a nuke on us now and wiped their hands.” Bloom frowned; they’d had this conversation before. “Button, they can’t be all bad,” she reminded him for what felt like the umpteenth time. “Bloom, no offense, okay? I know your grandpa was a state senator, but that was ages ago, long before you were even born – and back before those fuckers in Washington abandoned us! Federal government pulled out whoever would run away and just left the rest of us to rot! And now, suddenly they give a fuck? There’s maybe, what, ten K of us left in this festering shithole that used to be our hometown and now they want to play nice? Fuck that.” With some strain, Bulk pulled the second of the cargo boxes free. Hefting one over his shoulder, he waved over a couple of guys to help with the second one. “Can’t carry both of them and navigate the terrain,” he apologized. “Hey, big guy, th’ fact that you’re able to do so in the first place is a miracle in and of itself,” Bloom said with a grin. “‘Bout the only good news we’ve had today.” “Something wrong?” Button asked. “Yeah. Given that it’s late afternoon and the drone crashed this morning, ain’t it strange that th’ Octos really haven’t come out? Ah mean, sure, we’ve got a couple o’ slagged corpses over there,” she said, pointing into the slight distance where some of the other resistance fighters stood, “but that wasn’t our doing; that was just wreckage from the drone and they were in the wrong place at th’ wrong time.” “Maybe there’s a holiday they’re celebrating?” Bulk suggested. “Like what? ‘Yay we fuckin’ killed another human’ day or something?” Bloom drawled. “I’m not sure that’s it.” Button thought about it. “No, she’s right. Given that this was a major tactical issue, I would think the Octos wouldn’t ignore it.” “Maybe you’re just thinking too much like a human would,” Bulk reasoned. “I mean, do we really know how they think?” “Sugar, they’re tryin’ to kill us all,” Bloom snarled. “Ah don’t really give a fuck what they think.” The trio was about to argue more when a voice came over the radio: “Hey guys, you’d better hurry – something is going down over by the main entrance to the Octo base.” Button smiled grimly. “Up for killing more Octos, Bloom?” She gave a laugh. “Hey, we gotta make up the slack since you knocked up Sweetie.” A keening cry rent the air, a sad yet high-pitched tone like nothing they’d ever heard before. “That can’t be good,” Button said. “Okay, let’s wrap this shit up! Bulk, follow the others and see if you can get this to the subway station; we’ll take the shit underground to camp.” He pointed to two others. “Okay, you three give them cover. Do whatever you have to do to make sure this shit gets to camp safely, am I clear?” They nodded and got into position. Bloom looked at two others. “You two cover us while we install the explosives.” She then pulled out a small radio and hit the button. “Atropos, what’s th’ eye in the sky say?” “We have our folks engaging what looks to be like….” The voice faded off into nothingness before it became frantic. “Holy fuck! Get out of there, now! Our guys are getting slaughtered over there. I’m going to provide cover, but you need to get out of there quicktime!” Bloom and Button looked at each other worriedly. “Atropos, what’s going—” “Not now, Bloom!” came the response, followed by gunfire on the other end. “I’m busy!” That was enough to get the groups to spring into action. Bloom took off her backpack and opened it, pulling out pipe bombs, as well as some electrical tape. “What do y’ think, one or two?” “All of them,” he told her. “We need to make sure nothing’s left.” “Gonna to take a while to make new ones,” Bloom said. “Yeah, but better that than letting this fall in Octo control. I don’t want them to get any more advantages on us than they already have. We’re hanging by a thread already, and if the fucksticks in Washington have finally decided to descend from the Mountain to help us proles, then we can’t let their stuff be exposed either.” The strange cries rang through the air again. In the distance gunshots could be heard, as well as screaming. The group worked faster. > The Best Laid Plans... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 181021SJUL30: Despite the fact that what she held against her right now made her skin crawl, Fluttershy tried to relax. She braced the frame against her right shoulder, looking down the scope, trying to recall what she remembered from the last time she did it. “You’ll be fine, hon,” she could hear Flash say behind her. “It’s mostly muscle memory.” “You know it isn’t,” she snapped at him, a little harder than intended. “I’m a healer, not a killer.” “You know I don’t like doing that unless there’s no other alternative,” he said to her gently. Fluttershy sighed, then set down the rifle, a P-90 USG, and looked at him. “I’m sorry I snapped at you,” she told him. “I just…I don’t like guns.” “I know you don’t,” he replied. “And if I had my way, you wouldn’t touch one. But that choice was taken out of my hands – both of ours.” He went over and embraced her. “I have always wanted to keep you safe, love, but I can’t do that all the time.” She smiled and kissed him. “I know.” “Then let’s try this again, okay?” Fluttershy nodded, returning to the fireline and rehefting the weapon. Originally, it wasn’t a weapon that the US Army tended to use, but given the immense destruction of weapon systems around the world in the past five years, the armies of the world used whatever they could get their hands on and it was now just as common for the US Army to use the P-90 as it was for Russian Special Forces to use XM8s. The remaining weapons factories around the world were now working together to try to field a globally-uniform weapon system that could be used by all nations, but rumors were of it being in development, not actually field tested just yet, so everyone had to make do with what was available. Aiming carefully, Fluttershy pulled the trigger and the gun bucked. A small lick of flame tore away from the muzzle as the round cleared. However, the bullet missed the target, instead embedding itself into the concrete wall at the back of the firing range, far from her intended mark. She frowned as she set the weapon down. “I’m not that bad of a shot!” she groused, ignoring her husband while he laughed, collapsing to the floor in fits while his wife huffed. “That was,” he gasped between gales of laughter, “the worst shot I’ve ever seen!” “Be glad I love you or you’d be the next thing I’d shoot at,” she said in a hurt tone. “Yes, but I’d be perfectly safe – the surroundings would be the objects at threat,” he replied. He finally forced himself to calm down and looked at her. “It can’t be that hard to shoot a gun, can it? I mean, you’ve been exposed to them before. I recall Sunset had that airsoft gun she used to shoot all the time at Applejack’s place.” Fluttershy was quiet for the longest time, before she said, “I remember that. She loved using that thing for target practice.” For some reason, the unicorn-turned-teen had a fascination with firearms, and though she had never intended to use them on anyone, she shot whenever she could. “I used to be worried that she would do something stupid with those guns, but thankfully they were just for fun.” The two were silent for the longest time, reminiscing over someone common to their lives long gone and likely dead now. After a few more awkward seconds, he said, “Okay, let’s try this again.” He walked over and grabbed a sidearm, setting that and the magazine on the table. “Make the shots and dinner’s on me, okay?” “And if I don’t?” “Then dinner’s on you – which it should be anyway, since you get paid more than I do,” he reminded her. “But you’re my husband. You’re supposed to spoil me rotten because you love me,” she said with a smile, and he just shook his head, chuckling at the silliness of her words. Meanwhile, Fluttershy picked up the sidearm and magazine and slid it into the well. She thought of the fun times she’d had with Sunset, long before it had all gone south. Though she’d never herself fired Sunset’s airsoft gun, she did remember how it came together. The memories brought a bittersweet smile to her face. But from where he stood, Flash then looked at his wife as she started to glow with a green aura. “Flutters?” She turned back to him and the glow stopped. “Yes?” He wondered if he’d just imagined what he saw. “Everything alright?” “I was just…reminiscing,” she admitted. “But I guess I should focus on what I need to do.” She set the gun down momentarily to slide on her safety glasses and ear protectors, then picked up, aimed, and fired. The pistol barked its tinny report as the woman fired, the weapon briefly buckling as each spent cartridge ejected away from the weapon. When she put the gun down, she looked at her husband with a smile. “Let’s not go to the pizza place tonight, okay? Getting a little tired of that.” She then went to return the pistol to the gun rack, so the rangemaster could take care of it. Flash jogged out to where the target was, and looked on with a shock. Perfect bullseye for the whole magazine. How the hell’d she do that? He went back to ask her when one of his men rushed up to them. “Captain? Col. Spearhead is looking for you and the Major,” he said. “Said it’s urgent and for you to drop everything. I brought a car so we can get there soonest.” Flash and Fluttershy looked at each other; whatever other weapons familiarization planned was now on hold. “Okay, Sergeant,” he said. “Let’s get going.” “Thanks for coming, you two,” Spearhead said as they entered his office. “We just got word from the Mountain that they’re sending along some heavy hitters for this operation. They’re not just sending SEALs from SEAL Team SIX, but we’re getting their top platoon as well: The Amazons.” “The Amazons, sir?” Fluttershy asked. “Naval Special Warfare Development Group Platoon Alpha, codenamed ‘the Amazons’,” Spearhead clarified. “Their lone all-female team, their most effective squad, and, as I understand it, they’ve been in the worst of the fighting out there. These gals apparently know their shit far more than anyone else, which is why they’re taking the lead on this.” He reached over and handed them two folders. “But they’re not the only ones coming along for the ride. “The President is worried about another Boston, so he’s authorized the use of the Changelings – a CIA wetworks group. The SEALs are there in case the Octos act up.” Spearhead shook his head. “The Changelings are there in case the locals act up.” “What?” Fluttershy gasped. “You heard me, Major. Personally, I don’t like it, either. And the more I hear about this, the less I like it. But I suppose I can bring that up with the project leader, Col. Shining Armor. I know Col. Armor; he’s a good man. But if he’s along for the ride that means that he’s had some say in all of this – but whether that’s as a voice of reason or as the fall guy, I don’t know.” “Sir, I have to protest,” Fluttershy told him. “I don’t know much about the CIA, but even I know they’re not supposed to operate within the US—” “Those are the old rules, Major,” Spearhead said. “With the Octos now trying to kill everyone, those rules went out the window. Nowadays, the only difference between the FBI’s intelligence group and the CIA’s is that the FBI are generally considered the nice folks.” He set down the folder. “In any case, that’s unimportant. I’m more concerned about whether or not your folks are ready to go.” She looked at Flash. “Your call on that one, Captain.” “Yeah, sure, make your husband do all the hard work,” he grumbled. “Knock it off, you two,” Spearhead told them. “As it is, I’m already pushing several regs by sending you both on this mission. While I know you two are just joking, the fact is, many people won’t, and they’re not going to care that it’s just husband and wife banter. You’re a major, Fluttershy. Sentry reports to you as that, and for right now, only that.” “Understood, sir,” she said, taking the hint. “In any case, from what I can tell, my people are good to go. We’ve been working with Flash’s company and although we’re not fighters, we’ll do our best not to be a burden.” “And your assessment, Flash?” “My senior cadre has been working with hers and they’re as good as we can make them. While they won’t be dyed-in-the-wool light fighters, they should be able to deal with the situation at hand.” “That’s the most I can ask for. In any case, we have word that they will be here tomorrow. Afterwards, we’ll work things out with Col. Armor and figure out where to go from there. Chances are, we’ll be moving fast, so I expect you two to have your folks ready to move at a moment’s notice, got that?” Fluttershy finally decided to put the elephant on the room on notice. “Request permission to speak freely, sir.” “Granted, Major, though I already know what you’re going to say.” “You don’t want to do this, do you? Send us, I mean.” “No, and not just because of regulations. You two….” He sighed. “You two remind me a lot of my wife and I way back when. Happy as clams, living a peaceful life and not having to worry about aliens or anything of the like. You two were dragged into this because you’re both from Canterlot, and if what little we know so far is true, I may be sending you two – a pair who deserve much better than this – to your deaths. So, no, this isn’t easy at all, Fluttershy, and I don’t like this one Goddamn bit. Only solace I can take is that you’re going in protected by the best the government has.” Flash looked at him, then his wife uneasily, not comfortable with the fact that as an accomplished soldier – and a police officer before that –he was still having to rely on someone else to do what needed to be done. She then made her next request. “Sir, I’d also like to have Lt. Bolt come along with us. She’s worked hard to get my group up to snuff and she can serve as a company XO for me.” “I think I can arrange that,” he told her, “just as long as you’re sure about it. Lt. Bolt is a communications officer, not infantry.” “Then it’s more important that we have one of those along for the ride,” she told him. “If we’re going to succeed at this, sir, we’re going to need every chance at success.” Spearhead looked at her and for a second he wondered he saw a mouse about to roar. “Then it’s best to make sure that I do so,” he said, templing his fingers against the desk. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, once it all starts. Dismissed, you two.” As Flash and Fluttershy departed the colonel’s office, she commented, “We should probably look for quarters for the incoming SEALs. We can probably commandeer one of the abandoned apartment buildings that the town hasn’t used yet.” “I’ll talk to my first sergeant and see if he can have the quartermasters get involved. As it is, we’re probably going to need some for their noncoms and enlisted troops.” “A platoon, though? That’s smaller than your company. Will that be enough? Even for Special Warfare?” “The President seems to think so. Plus, I once had the chance to train with some Green Berets. If the SEALs are anything like them, a platoon of them should be more than enough – hell, they’ll probably be more effective than my own people, and that’s saying a lot.” She crossed her arms. “Also, there’s another thing we should consider.” “Which is?” She playfully jabbed a finger in his chest. “You promised me you were going to take me somewhere else tonight, right? I made the shots, so you owe me dinner at a decent restaurant, got that?” He laughed. “What happened to the sweet, gentle girl I married?” “You married her – that was the problem,” she said with a grin. “Okay, get a room you two.” Bolt rushed over to meet them, briefly saluting both. “Flutters, are you sure about this?” “I need someone I can trust,” she said to Bolt, “and I know I can trust you.” “Thanks. I’ll try not to blow it.” “Well, you can start by doing our work for us,” Flash suggested, looking slyly at his wife, who caught it immediately. So did Bolt. “I just showed up at the worst time, didn’t I?” “Yes you did, XO,” Fluttershy replied. “Now the Captain here is going to give you an assignment, and he and I are going to go work on procuring weapons for our company in the meanwhile.” Bolt’s eyes narrowed. “Since when did ‘procuring weapons’ become a euphemism for ‘going back to the apartment to fool around’?” “It didn’t – we really are going to go check on weapons for you guys,” Flash told Bolt. “Yes, we use different euphemisms for sex,” Fluttershy said, leaning briefly against Flash. WINCHESTER ARMY AIRFIELD, VIRGINIA 181837RJUL30: Once upon a time, Winchester Regional Airport had been nothing more than a small municipal airfield, a place where cargo and hobbyist aircraft flitted in and out of, on its way to destinations elsewhere. But since the destruction of Washington DC and most of the military bases on the Eastern Seaboard, several municipal airports had been repurposed into military facilities in order to accommodate the war. The Air Force took over the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport, turning it into Springwind Air Force Base; the former Leesburg Executive Airport was now busily being expanded as Naval Air Station Leesburg. Winchester Regional, with its proximity to the Mountain, had been no different; and as a result, had become Winchester Army Airfield. At the moment, the majority of the “FAR Group” (as Lightning had nicknamed them) was meeting in a conference room inside the terminal building. Applejack had already introduced Tempest, Shipshape and her other senior personnel to them, and Tempest had arrived with new information: due to them now being semi-independent of DEVGRU, they were being assigned the official designation of SEAL Team SIX Detachment ONE. Additionally, an aircraft from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron FOUR SIX was now assigned to them, flying one of the new HV-22C “Super Osprey” aircraft specifically designed for special warfare use. They were now going through the initial order of battle, though further planning would have to commence once they arrived at Ponyville. “Look, all I’m saying, folks, is that we’re not going to be able to crowd in everyone into our craft,” Lt. Splitdown, the pilot of the aircraft, stated. “It was meant to carry a SEAL platoon, so we can probably squeeze in a couple of others, such as my aircrew, Ms. Chrysalis and the Colonel here, since we’re just doing a straight flight to Oklahoma. However, once we get ready for the hot zone, we’re not going to be able to carry a company of groundpounders and medics as well. And if we’re talking medical supplies and all that? Sorry, I’m flying a plane, not a destroyer.” “We’ll work on that,” Lighting stated. “As it is, once we get this ball rolling, I’m not sure working out of rented CIA offices is going to cut it for us anymore.” “Oh, and here I thought we were going to get some good coffee for a change,” Tempest said with a smirk. “I’ll get right on that as soon as I can,” Lighting responded with equal humor. “Seriously, though, Colonel, if what Cmdr. Apple has stated is true, then we’re looking at having to move around the world at a moment’s notice.” She looked at Applejack. “You said you weren’t the only one who worked with this unicorn girl, right?” “That’s true. But I have no idea where they are or even if they’re still alive,” Applejack answered. “And quite frankly, I don’t care. They were my friends once – but we ruined one of the best things in my life and each other in the process. Some things are meant to stay buried and some things are just best left behind.” The look in her eyes was one of uncomfortable pain and anger, something that the others hadn’t seen before and something that Tempest had only seen rarely. Shining looked at his subordinate, then at Lt. Shadow and decided that she would be best to take care of it. He didn’t know Applejack as well as her subordinate did, and mission or not, Canterlot native or not, he figured it was best left between friends. Besides, being from Canterlot himself, everything he’d heard her say at the briefing with President Sombra, combined with follow-ups made him put two and two together in several places, as strange as it had seemed. The construction accident at Canterlot High School which he’d heard about, explained away simply as the result of so-called “concrete cancer” accrued over the school’s decades of operation; people had reported that demon, but at the time it had been dismissed as just special effects for a student film. Then there was the fireworks show in Greenvale Park during CHS’ high school talent contest, with pyrotechnics that somehow had sown chaos; people had reported seeing a giant winged unicorn, but that was later attributed to mass hysteria. And then there was the intramural games between his alma mater, Crystal Prep, and again, CHS, where things had once again gotten out of hand. He hadn’t found out what had occurred, other than that Crystal Prep was issued its first draw; and that the longtime principal, Abacus Cinch, had been fired over something that had occurred between her and a girl named Moondancer. Both he and his wife agreed it was a good thing his sister had been sick with the flu that week, or likely Cinch probably would’ve roped her into whatever it was. As it was, Cadance couldn’t really remember for some reason, save that the board had promoted her to dean of women’s issues after the whole thing. But now…now he knew that magic – magic?! – had been behind all of that, and that his subordinate had been a part of that mess. And now, without any understanding of what it was or the ramifications of what it would do, they were going to rely on it to save the human race. And clearly, Applejack had almost no interest of reinvolving herself in those affairs, which made him wonder exactly what it was that she had done as a teenager…and what had happened to make her shun it like no tomorrow. Somehow, he wondered how much of the seventeen-year-old girl was still there in the twenty-nine-year-old woman, hating whatever it was that had happened a dozen years ago. PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 181937SJUL30: “I like this place,” Fluttershy said, looking at the décor of the restaurant. They were at a place deep inside the civilian sector of town, out where the military personnel rarely ventured, as it was more family-oriented, with bars and other venues catering to the Army at a minimum. “How’d you find it?” “Boltie said if I didn’t take you here she’d frag me,” Flash said blandly. When his wife looked at him oddly, he grinned and added, “Seriously, there are flyers all over the main drag. Apparently a bunch of restaurants in this part of town are about to go out of business, because there’s not enough civilians still in town left in order to keep them afloat. None of them want to leave, so they’re trying to reach out to us. When I saw the flyer, the owner of this place was walking by and she insisted that we come here.” “So…you did it because she’s throwing free food at us and not because you actually searched.” “Well, if you put it that way,” he said, shrugging. She giggled and picked up her hamburger, taking a bite out of it and savored the taste before setting it back down. “Hey, so long as the mission gets done, no one cares about what shortcuts are taken, right? That’s the Army way.” “I’m so glad you approve, Major. I can die happy now.” She took another bite and looked around. “You know, this reminds me of that old place we used to hang out at after school – Sugarcube Corner.” “I remember,” he told her. “You were there so often it’s like you all had one of the seats reserved just for your group.” She nodded. “Those were the days. But then we all fucked up and split apart, and I retreated into myself. Didn’t come back out of my shell until you ran into me at Cloudsdale U.” “I remember that. You seemed so happy to see someone from CHS, even someone you didn’t hang around with before. And you weren’t the only one who was hurting by Sunset’s loss. She was my girlfriend, and then left me and then she came back…changed. And we….” He shook his head. “You know, what? Forget it – it’s in the past.” “Is it?” “How long have we been married now? It’s in the past, and I’m far surer of our marriage than I ever was of my relationship with Sunset. And in the end, it’s you and me.” He reached over and took her hands in his. “We’re going to make it out of here, we’re going to end this war, and then we’re going to start a family like you wanted.” She smiled, falling practically in love with him once again. “You promise?” “Yeah,” he said. “It’s a promise.” WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA 182256RJUL30: Even though she wasn’t familiar with the area, Tempest knew it wouldn’t take long to find her old friend. “Figures…all I had to do was find the apple trees in the area, and I knew you’d be there,” Applejack gestured at the apple tree. “Akero. It’s a cultivar that’s hard to find outside of Northern Europe. It’s the standard variety in Sweden and Estonia, if I remember.” She looked back at the abandoned house, surprisingly still in good condition. “Found this place one afternoon after borrowing a car and just deciding to take a drive. I was going to ask the Reclamation Authority if I can take ownership, but if we’re going to be moving away from the Mountain, I guess I shouldn’t count on it.” Tempest looked around appreciatively. “Looks nice. Owners must’ve really liked this place.” “I just like the fact that it’s twenty minutes away from the Mountain. I can relax in peace.” “Bullshit. People like you and I don’t get peace. Not yet, anyway.” Tempest hopped onto the hood of the JLTV and lay on it, looking at the stars above. “You know, this really reminds me of where I grew up.” “You never really told me about that.” “Two-bit place in southwestern Wyoming called Kludgetown. Part mining town, part art enclave, all weird. My dads thought it’d be a great place to grow up – they were a bit idealistic about that sort of thing. We got insulted a lot, but they went out of their way to take it in stride; said that in the end, namecalling were just words that let them have power over you only if you let them.” She raised her hand to the air. “Sky just seemed to stretch on forever.” She then leaned up on her elbows and looked at her friend. “So, Jackie, want to cut the bullshit and tell me what’s wrong?” “I’m not looking forward to returning. I left Canterlot because I destroyed everything I had there, and when I left, I thought I was going away for good and would never look back. But here I am, a dozen years later and headed back to my failures.” “Everyone has regrets. I told you how I got the small scar under my eye, right?” “Yeah, but you were in the right, as I recall. I drove away someone I cared about like a sister only to find out that it was my own flesh-and-blood sister that was the guilty party. We were all friends, all six of us, and in the end despite everything we said about our friendship being strong and sure, we didn’t even give Sunset a chance to prove she was telling the truth.” Applejack stared at the ground as if it would give an answer she’d been searching for years for. “I am – I was – Honesty, and yet I couldn’t get past my own prejudice to see she was telling the truth.” Are you worried you’re not going to find her?” “I’m more worried that I will – and I won’t know what to say. Did I tell you I had a dream the other night about her?” Applejack then went over her dream and how she seemed to have had a conversation with the wayward unicorn in it. “And in the end, she told me to forgive myself…but I don’t know if that was really her, or me just trying to convince my own guilty conscience.” “Twelve years is a long time to be a martyr, Jackie.” Tempest shifted slightly. “I’ve known you for years and I’ve never known you to be this down on yourself. You’ve always bounced back before. Why not this time?” “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the kid in me that wants Sunset to actually forgive her, and the adult I am now is just too jaded to believe it.” “Or maybe you just need to hear it from her in person. Either way, that’s not going to happen until you step up and start pushing the dominos.” “Yeah, well, I don’t have the luxury of that choice anymore,” Applejack reminded her. “I stepped into this, now I gotta step forward.” Tempest gave her friend a grin. “Fuck Six, Jackie.” Despite her mood, the blonde laughed. “Yeah, Fuck Six it is.” CANTERLOT, COLORADO 182103TJUL30: The cargo recovered from the downed drone turned out to be far more of a treasure trove than Button or the others had even imagined. Within the two crates were six military-grade hardened laptops running the latest edition of Windows, as well as enhanced solar panels and a few other things that had been developed or advanced in the outside world since they’d been cut off so many years ago. But the biggest surprise had come on an accompanying tablet: a message recorded by Sombra, President of the United States (wasn’t the president Kibbitz? Had something happened to Washington?) Seated in what looked to be a location that didn’t look like the Oval Office, he faced the camera as he gave his speech: “To the brave people of Canterlot: we know you’ve suffered, that you’ve put up with a lot to protect your homes and loved ones even as the war has raged on. But America has not forgotten you and now we aim to keep our promise to come back for you. Enclosed on the computers within are part of the plan to return to Canterlot and take back the city. We hope you’ll be there to join our forces when we do. Until then, Godspeed, and God Bless America.” “Well,” Button said with disgust, “that has got to be the biggest line of bullshit ever. Wonder how many takes it took him to say it with a straight face? Goddamn jackboot.” “And yet they supplied us with the stuff necessary to contact them,” Bloom told him. “He might be telling the truth, you know.” “No way in hell he is. He’s a politician and you know how you can tell a politician is lying?” Button seethed. “He opens his mouth.” He looked at the rest of those assembled. “Well, you heard our dear President. How many of you out there actually believe he gives a damn about us?” The group was currently in the remains of the cavernous Downtown subway station, the only place large enough to fit all of the resistance fighters, as well as those of the survivors who wanted a say in how things were done. The underground structure had thus become a central meeting hall as well as the defacto City Hall, given that the original building was a burnt, ruined husk. Between Downtown North’s labyrinthine corridors, walkways and platforms, it had become the true heart of Canterlot in this desperate time: part military-base, part gathering location and part market for those still working to survive in this hell. For her part, Gilda looked at the face of the president on the large screen Button had displayed the message on. She took a drag of her handrolled cigarette, then threw away the rest. “Fuck that bastard,” she said. “Fuck them all. Where were they when our families were getting killed? Where was he when my kid sister Gabrielle died in my arms?” Her eyes narrowed, becoming amber pinholes of rage. “I’ll take the Octos over those fucking thugs any day – at least the Octos are clear and honest in their need to try to kill us.” “I really doubt the government would contact us just to kill us,” a kid with a shaved head and messy clothing commented. He was the latter because he’d been one of the ones that had barely survived the earlier assault, and was waiting to give his grisly report. The former was because his dreadlocks, that he’d had for years, were now a liability and if he was going to cut them, he might as well go all the way. “I say we get in touch with them and take our chances.” “There was a time when we couldn’t trust you,” one of the older adults in the room pointed out. “Stupid stoner kid now suddenly thinks he’s hot shit because you’ve killed a couple of aliens. Why the hell should we listen to you?” “Because I grew up,” Sandalwood stated, giving the older man a glare. “Can you say the same?” The older man stormed towards Sandalwood. “I oughta smack the smug off you, kid.” The younger man closed the distance. “Bring it on, fossil. I’ll dust you like I did the Octos.” “THAT’S ENOUGH!” a clear, commanding voice rang out. “WE ARE NOT EACH OTHER’S ENEMY – THE ALIENS ARE!” Everyone in the room turned to look in the direction of the voice, and at once, the room turned to face the speaker. Zeus and Hera were present, a sad look in the elder’s eyes. “We are the survivors of Canterlot! We rest on the bones of those who were sacrificed so that we could live! We vowed to take our city back and to honor those who fell – and you wish to squabble between yourselves? Do you forget that is what the Others likely want? For us to turn on one another, so that we may finish the job they started?” Zeus glared at the older man first. “Old Book! You should know better than anyone else that these aren’t the kids that were in school when you were the Chief Librarian. These are adults with their own minds and own opinions, and you should respect that.” Sandalwood was the next target. “And you, Sandalwood – you should know better. You’ve heard your respect as a grown man, but you need to do the same for others as well. Old Book has knowledge that you don’t, and it has been vital to our survival. Do you want to grow up in a world where your daughter has no respect for her own father, because he has never shown any to others?” Chastened, he backed down. Firm eyes fixed on the group. “Everyone, this is a hard decision, I know. We’ve lost friends, family, loved ones…. We’ve lost too much. We can’t afford to lose ourselves as well: not as Canterlotians, not as people. We have to trust once more: not just each other, but the outside as well, or else the Others win, whether or not we free our world.” Zeus put a comforting hand on Hera’s shoulder. “As much as I understand the rage and the anger, we need to think about our children and our future. We can’t have that future if we become what we hate.” The room was quiet for the longest time. Button himself sighed, kicking up dust, looking at his wife. He didn’t trust the government at all – but he did trust Zeus. Everyone did. And if that’s what Zeus wanted… “It’s for our baby,” Sweetie told him softly. “Fine,” he said softly. “For our baby.” He looked at Sweet Transmission, who was seated at one of the laptops, listening for a signal. “ST, let them know we’re here.” Transmission looked up at him and nodded. “To any government operatives listening in on this channel,” she began. “This is the Canterlot resistance – we are reaching out to make contact. Repeat, to any government operatives listening in on this channel, this is the Canterlot resistance – we are reaching out to make contact….” > ...Are Often Dead on Arrival > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 190943SJUL30: The following morning Fluttershy, Flash and Spearhead waited on the tarmac of the makeshift helipad, waiting for an aircraft to arrive. There was a tension in the air, given that the arrival of this special group would set things finally in motion and whatever forces would be in play would finally take the field. A sergeant spoke to Spearhead briefly before departing. “Just got word they’re on final approach,” he said. “Are you both ready?” “As ready as we can be, sir,” Fluttershy told him. “I’ll second that, Colonel,” Flash agreed. “Speaking of ready: do we have any extra information on the SEALs? Not that it’s necessary, but it might help to know who I’m working with.” “They didn’t send much, as there wasn’t time. All I know, really is that it’s the Amazons, the SEALs’ all-female team; and that the officer in charge was recently promoted to O-4 for her actions in the field during the evacuation of Rome. Apparently, she caught the attention of President Sombra himself, though whether that’s a good thing or not, I can’t state.” “That critical?” “From what little we know, for some reason, she’s very much important to the whole situation, so essentially she was hand-picked by the President himself. Means whoever we’re dealing with has some very important backers and that we’ll want to make sure she’s a happy camper. So play nice, you two.” Fluttershy nodded. “She must be extremely good at her job as a SWO.” “SPECOPS, Major,” Spearhead corrected. “The term SWO, as I understand it, means something vastly different in Navy terminology, so you’ll want to keep that in mind. As it is, Navy jargon is arcane and confusing; when I was a major myself, I had the chance to work with the Navy at Fifth Fleet headquarters in the Middle East. Probably one of the most confusing moments of my career,” he said with a laugh. The sergeant from earlier returned. “Sir, Belltower says they’re now within visual.” Sure enough, a haze-gray HV-22C bearing Navy markings flew past the church belltower, which was being used as an impromptu flight tower. The tilt-rotor aircraft then stopped and started hovering over the tarmac as the huge prop engines cantilevered from the flight to the landing position, and the vehicle came to a gentle descent on the ground. Signalmen pointed it in the direction of the barn being used as a hangar, where several Army helicopters sat. The Osprey’s rotors slowed and then came to a complete stop as the rotors and wings began to fold. “Now that is amazing,” Spearhead said. “I swear, I never tire of seeing our technology in action.” After a few minutes, about twenty-five men and women got out of the aircraft. Most of the men were dressed in flight suits, nothing special, given that they were likely the aircrew. Additionally, a man wearing ACUs and a woman wearing a deep teal turtleneck and black cargo pants leapt out; Spearhead noted that was Col. Armor and likely the CIA liaison with him. The two walked together, chatting along warmly, and Spearhead wondered if Fluttershy and Flash weren’t the only couple in this operation. However, it was the women that stepped out afterwards that caught everyone’s attention. All of them in various states of camouflage, muscular and had two things in common: they all moved as if they owned the place; and all of them had a generally scruffy look, definitely out of uniform regulations for any service…but that was the norm for Special Operations personnel in the field. All from various shapes and sizes, but all of them at the peak of physical fitness and more than a match for any one of the soldiers present. But it was the one in the lead, wearing mirror shades and looking as though she could easily bench-press a deuce-and-a-half, briefly chatted with a few of her people before following behind the colonel and the CIA operative. It was then that Fluttershy thought she recognized the woman in question. “Is that…?” Fluttershy whispered to her husband. “Can’t be,” he murmured back. But sure enough, it was. As the trio approached, Spearhead offered his hand. “Shining? Good to see you! Didn’t know you were a part of this.” “Yeah,” Shining said as he shook Spearhead’s hand. “Apparently they were impressed with how I defended Detroit from the Octos, so I was personally assigned to this by the Joint Chiefs. They went over just about everyone’s head on this, because President Sombra and Adm. Rider wanted me to run this show.” “Well, hopefully we can have a repeat of whatever you did and save Canterlot. It’s well overdue that we started taking back our cities.” “I hear that. In any case, this is Chrysalis. She’s our CIA liaison and intelligence head.” “Pleasure to meet you, Colonel,” Chrysalis said smoothly as she shook the man’s hand. If nothing else, her Agency training had taught her how to work with people of various stripes; she could tell just from the looks in his eyes that he was not happy that she was here, but that was more of an oh-god-it’s-the-spooks way rather than anything personal. “No offense, Ms. Chrysalis, but I hope that your services won’t be needed,” he said. She caught what he meant instantly. “None taken. My Changelings are here merely for intelligence and scouting. I know what you’re thinking…and frankly, I don’t care for that either. Thankfully, those that you’re referring to are known as the Diamond Dogs – and that group is kept on a tight leash.” “You have people here already?” Chrysalis grinned. “They’re already in Canterlot. The moment the mission was authorized we did a HALO insertion so they could gather HUMINT. Lost several of my agents in that, but we got the bulk down there.” Spearhead looked at her oddly. “Okay…would’ve been nice to have been informed about it since its within my AOR, but it is what it is, I guess.” He then finally turned to the last one. “And you are?” The final woman walked over to Spearhead and saluted. Once he returned the salute, she extended her hand, removing her glasses with the other one to reveal all-too-familiar apple-green eyes. “Col. Spearhead, I’m Lt. Cmdr. Applejack Apple, OIC of DEVGRU DET ONE. Pleasure to be working with you, sir; during the trip I read about your counterattack on the Octos in Texas. Very impressive, I have to admit.” He shook her hand and nodded. “Thank you, Commander, but I can’t take all the credit. My troops did the hard work – I was just there to lead.” “I understand how that goes, sir. My ladies put the rounds where I tell them to, and I can’t be prouder.” Fluttershy looked at the woman, trying to keep her emotions under control. It was her – really her. Applejack, her former friend, the one that had fallen off the radar. But how? For one, there was no trace of the accent she had from her youth. And her hair was now longer than Fluttershy’s, definitely not military regulation, but there she was, in a Navy uniform, wearing O-4 oak leaves. None of this made sense. Unaware of her thoughts, Spearhead then gestured towards Fluttershy and Flash, ready to introduce them, when a sergeant came running up to them. “Sir, we’ve just received word on a matter you may wish to look into personally.” “Is it regarding Canterlot?” Spearhead asked and when the sergeant nodded, he gave an okay. “Well, Shining, looks like things are already hitting the fan. Care to sit in?” “Sounds like a plan. Chryssie?” “Right behind you, Colonel,” she said, sounding surprisingly professional, given her more impish demeanor around the office. “Good. Jackie, can I trust you to take care of the rest of things here?” Applejack, already one step ahead, turned to Tempest. “Lieutenant, have the petty officers stow the gear in the armory and have Chief Shipshape talk to the base SUPPO to get us berthing. Then have our usual guys hit up their S2 and S3 to get as much as we can – weather, flight conditions, the works. Once you do that and Splitdown and his folks put our ride to bed for the day, I suspect the Colonel will want us to join him for the briefing that’s likely to happen in…” She reached in her pocket and unfolded her smartphone, looking at the time, “…about fifteen minutes from now, isn’t that right, Col. Armor?” Spearhead laughed. “She’s good,” he said to Shining. Applejack grinned. “I’ve met enough full birds over the years to know how they think, sir.” “Good. In the meanwhile, I’ll leave you with Maj. Fluttershy and Cpt. Sentry – they should be able to show you around.” Tempest stood there as the senior officers departed. She could feel the tension in the air, and that wasn’t a good thing at all. Apparently Applejack knew these people – and the result wasn’t exactly anything pleasant. “Jackie, you okay?” she asked. Without looking at her friend and subordinate, Applejack said, “You know what needs to get done, Tempest. Turn-to.” Given their conversation the previous night, Tempest felt more than a bit worried and protective of her friend. “You know where to find me after this is all done.” Giving a wordless nod to the other two officers, she went off to go issue orders to the troops, leaving Applejack alone with her literal and metaphorical past. The trio were quiet for a few moments, the two women silently sizing up the other before Fluttershy spoke: “Applejack? Is it really you?” The naval officer frowned. “Yes, it’s me. But I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” The words flowed out of her, both incisive and hurt at the same time as old feelings welled to the surface. “I have no idea why either of you two are here – or why you’re dressed like that – but I’m hoping this is a coincidence, and that after this is done, I don’t have to see you again.” “I’m dressed like this because I’m a major – I’m an Army doctor,” Fluttershy said. “The war needed my skills as a healer more than it did as a chemistry teacher.” “The war, huh? I’m sure you know all about the war. Like what it’s like to see people die constantly.” Applejack crossed her arms. “I haven’t seen many people I know come back from that, because of, well, the war.” “Actually, yes, I do,” Fluttershy said. “Here, we’re treating wounded from battles as well as taking care of the refugees that are scattered around Ponyville. The town’s population is larger than it seems – it’s just that people are understandably afraid to live in large settlements like they used to. And why are you here? I thought you told us you were done with Canterlot – that you were blowing town and you didn’t want to see us ever again?” “I don’t. But I have to go back, and I don’t have the luxury of disregarding orders. I go where I’m sent.” She then looked at Flash. “And what’s your excuse?” “I’m married to her. We’ve been married for about seven years now,” he told Applejack. Applejack’s lips moved as if she was going to say something, then thought better of it. Finally, she commented, “So I guess this means we have to work together.” “Yes, it does,” Fluttershy said. “Look, the past is the past—” “Yes, the past is the past. I have to live with the fact of what I did to Sunset. Looks like you chose not to,” Applejack replied. “In any case, I need to find Sunset’s journal – I need to find her if I’m going to save the world.” “Sunset? What does she have to do with—” Flash began, but found himself cut off by an angry Applejack. “You of all people don’t get to make that decision,” she hissed at him. “You didn’t wait long for your girlfriend to take off before you found yourself in bed with someone else.” “I would appreciate it if you laid off my husband,” Fluttershy said, coming to Flash’s defense. “We started our relationship years after we left Canterlot for Cloudsdale. There’s no proof that he and Sunset would’ve been together at that point.” “Well, you seem to have grown a backbone after all this time,” Applejack said nastily. “Clearly some things have changed…but I guess what you did to Sunset wasn’t one of them.” Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed in anger. “What I did to Sunset? She lived with you and you kicked her out of your house!” The moment she uttered those words, she knew it was the worst possible thing to say, but she couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t the same shy girl that was when they last knew one another and she was going to make that very clear. “At least I didn’t bed her boyfriend!” Applejack snarled. But she quickly recovered and added, “Look, we’re going to have to work together on this, clearly. But whether you’re going to Canterlot for the same reasons as me – and I doubt that – or you’re there to do whatever it is you do? While we may have known each other once, we’re not friends, got that?” Fluttershy looked as though she’d been slapped, but she refused to back down. She did that when she was younger, and maybe if she hadn’t, things would have been different. She wasn’t sure if they would be better, but she knew that she wasn’t going to roll over like she did in her youth. “Fine by me, Commander. I’m sure you can find your way around the base. Captain, let’s leave her to her own devices; I’m sure we have better things to do.” Flash glared at Applejack as well. “I’m in agreement, Major,” was all he said as both walked away. Applejack stood there, fists clenched, her breathing shallow. Of all the Goddamn nerves…. A part of Applejack wanted to be happy to see Fluttershy again, to celebrate the fact that she was alive and well and happily married. But it was who she was happily married to that was the problem. Or the fact that she acted as though she was blameless for what had happened – and had the nerve to accuse Applejack herself as if she’d been the one to mastermind what had happened! She needed to talk to Shining as soon as she could. No way in hell was she going to work with those two. She knew she had to find Sunset, but even though Sunset said that she needed all of them to come together, Applejack knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not if Fluttershy was any indicator. “It’s out of my hands, Jackie,” Shining told her several minutes later. The two were having a private conversation in Spearhead’s office, and Applejack had wasted no time telling him everything. “No, it’s not, Shining,” she told him. “They cannot go. I don’t have the faith of their infantry unit commander and I won’t risk my people. Furthermore, I will not work with either of them. I don’t trust them – I can’t trust them and—” “You were given an order, Commander.” The tone in his voice changed, and Applejack knew that tone: the attitude of command. She knew she’d had to use it on more than one occasion. “You were literally directed by POTUS to do whatever it took to get your friend back. And as a SEAL, you know that means sometimes dealing with unsavory things.” She sighed. “Colonel, I….” “I’m not saying that I don’t sympathize. I remember what you said. And without their sides of the story, I only have your word to go by, and you’re clearly shaken up about that. What I’m saying, Jackie, is that you need to remember: the fate of mankind is at stake here. Either we get that book and try to find clues as to where your unicorn friend is, or we all die. And if that means you have to work with your worst enemy, so be it.” She nodded sadly. “I know. It’s just….” “It’s painful. I know. I had a student of my wife’s that used to work for me, but I had him reassigned because just seeing him reminded me of her. So I completely understand how you feel,” he told her. “But we have to put our feelings aside for the sake of the world. If I were in the situation where I had to work with Lt. Plume again, as painful as it would be, I would do so.” She slumped back in her chair. “I hate the fact that you’re right,” she admitted. “Look, no one says you have to go out and have drinks with her after the mission. But if she is involved….” “Yeah, fuck me,” she sighed. “Fine. Fuck Six. I’ll do it, Shining.” He nodded sympathetically. “I didn’t expect anything less of you.” She gave him an honest look. “You expected more of me than I did.” The general planning meeting turned out to be tolerable, with most of the information given being the fact that Firebase AC was now in contact with the Canterlot Resistance and they were passing along information as to what their strengths, weaknesses and current conditions were. Chrysalis, unfortunately, was unable to get a hold of any of her personnel, so the information at the moment could not be corroborated. “Any chance of us going in HALO or HAHO?” Applejack asked. “If the Changelings got in, they got in during a time when the Octos weren’t concerned about it. Not anymore, though – they have an airtight defense perimeter around Canterlot now,” Spearhead told her. “In fact, the only way we could get communications gear to the Resistance was to send it in via a heavily-armored drone and have the unit move to a suitable location where it could be brought down under controlled conditions.” “By ‘controlled conditions’ you mean where it could crash without destroying its payload, I take it?” Tempest asked. “Unfortunately, you’re correct on that. The Resistance reported that they were able to successfully destroy the drone with their homemade explosives, but that they lost people while recovering the comms gear,” another officer explained. “Do we know about the medical situation of the civilians?” Fluttershy asked. “Conditions have to be abysmal, to say the least – and they’ve been there for years!” “Well, fortunately, given that Canterlot is the state capital, there were plenty of emergency supply stations in the event that World War III ever broke out,” Shining noted. “Obviously it didn’t, but the emergency supply stations had enough stuff within them to last them for years. Undoubtedly, though, some of those stations were probably lost during the attack, and likewise, after all these years, chances are that they’re running dry.” “Then we need to make sure that we have ample supplies going in,” Fluttershy responded. “We could be facing starvation, cholera and worse. Plus, if we have confirmed pregnancies, that means there are likely children there as well and protecting them is paramount.” “No, what is paramount is getting the Journal,” Applejack insisted. “While I appreciate missions of mercy as well as the next person, those are not our orders. Our orders are to get the Journal and figure out how we can either recover Sunset or get assistance from Equestria!” Spearhead overheard those words and looked at Shining. “Something I missed, Colonel?” Shining realized that his counterpart hadn’t been told. “Okay, anyone who is not directly involved with the mission planning or does not have an SCI needs to leave now.” He waited for a few minutes for those to depart, and then finally explained everything to Spearhead, who looked at his counterpart with disbelief at first before it morphed into confusion and finally complete astonishment. “And you’re telling me that Cmdr. Apple here was a friend of this ‘unicorn-turned-human’?” Spearhead asked with complete surprise. “She…wasn’t the only one, sir,” Fluttershy admitted. “She was a friend of mine as well.” “And yours as well, I take it, Cpt. Sentry?” Flash tugged awkwardly at his blouse collar. “Actually…she was my girlfriend. Slept with her a few times.” Every set of eyes in the room suddenly settled on him. “Hey, I didn’t know until well after the fact, okay?” From where she sat, Chrysalis chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure you have some interesting stories to tell, Captain.” After taking a five-minute break to let the laughter out and let Flash recover from his mortification, they then went on with their plans. Flash and his company would cover Fluttershy’s medical team and deal with the day-to-day matters of the Resistance, while Applejack and her SEALs would move through the town, searching for the Journal and as a secondary mission, finding a way to take down the enemy and prepare the way to recapture Canterlot. Chrysalis would go in with them and work with the SEALs, using her Changelings as a secondary force to assist Applejack and her troops. The latter two groups would put a priority on trying to neutralize the Octos’ air defenses, not only so that airstrikes could be conducted, but also that supplies could be airdropped in to assist the relief effort. As the meeting finally wound down, Chrysalis made her way over to Applejack. “You got time to talk, Jackie?” Applejack grunted. “Not you, too.” “Hey, I’m your friend and I’m worried about you, okay?” Chrysalis pointed out. “You are not on your game right now. Normally you’re not this tense.” “I just….” “Yeah, I can gather. Trust me, I get how you feel. One of my personal worries is if we go into Canterlot and we find out that Shining’s wife isn’t dead after all and that she’s been holding out for him all this time.” The look in Chrysalis’ eyes was one of honest worry. “I haven’t mentioned it to him, but as we get closer to Canterlot, that’s been a concern of mine.” “I doubt he’d leave you. You two are made for one another, you know that?” Applejack told her. “I wish I could believe that,” Chrysalis responded, “but some loves you just can’t forget.” “Well, if it makes you feel better you have me in your corner. Besides, we’re living in the here and now, girl. We can’t always look towards the past, or else we’ll have no future.” Chrysalis, however, was skeptical. “If that’s the case…then why are you looking for someone who vanished over a decade ago?” Those words haunted Applejack later as she found herself looking at one of the abandoned apple orchards in the civilian section of town. She idly wondered if a member of her family had ever lived here; Apples, her grandmother had told her, were always found where there were apples. But Applejack knew that statement was an exaggeration even back then – and now, when the world’s population was a desperate fraction of what it had once been, it made those words into a cruel falsehood. She heard the rustle of grass behind her and without even bothering to turn, she called out, “You may as well come out, Fluttershy. I can hear you, you know.” “I wasn’t trying to hide,” the voice responded. “Bullshit you weren’t. You clearly don’t know about moving through brush quietly. That takes training and I suppose even Flash knows how to do that.” The blonde turned to face her former friend. “So, why are you following me?” Fluttershy folded her arms. “I said I wasn’t trying to hide. I just…. I came to see how you’re doing, AJ.” “It’s Jackie now,” Applejack told her. “AJ makes me sound like some sort of inbred hick.” “You’re still AJ to me, if that means anything to you,” Fluttershy said. She hadn’t intended it to be insulting, but likely Applejack would take it that way. “And I’ll bet you’re wondering why I don’t have my old accent either, right?” The chiffon-haired woman said nothing and Applejack continued, but now in the almatine tones the other woman knew. “Th’ Navy don’t like none of us SPECWAR types havin’ distinct accents on account o’ them being, well, distinct, an’ Ah use t’ have one.” Applejack looked at the afternoon sky and said in the tones she used now, “So those of us who had them had to attend nightly voice coaching classes given by DLI until we spoke like we were from LA.” “I didn’t know that. For that matter, I didn’t know you joined the Navy. None of us did.” “And would you have cared regardless?” Applejack accused. “What was I supposed to do? We drove Sunset away and then you all abandoned me! We drove away the one girl that was like a sister to me and then you all figured it was my shit to deal with? With my grandmother furious with me for kicking Sunset out even while my kid sister was still jealous that we took in an alien girl even after she drove her away? And then you all just said ‘fuck it, it’s AJ’s problem?’” “It wasn’t like that,” Fluttershy told her. “Bullshit it wasn’t! I was so alone that by the time I graduated, I had no idea of where to go or what to do – I just knew I couldn’t be on the farm anymore. Since I didn’t know where to belong, I ran away – the Navy’s great for that kind of shit. But I did so well in boot camp that the brass practically pushed me to BUDS as part of the Fleet’s experiment in getting women into combat positions.” She reached in her pocket, pulling out a well-worn challenge coin, looking at it and savoring the memories. “I outclassed so many of the others in Coronado that the Captain there pushed for me to get into officer training, but they turned me down because I was just a seaman apprentice with a high school diploma. But Capt. Mizzenmast told me he wasn’t going to accept that shit, and that I shouldn’t either. “So I turned-to like a motherfucker and when I wasn’t jumping out of planes or shooting rounds, I worked on getting my diploma from an online university via Navy Campus – got an MBA from Virginia State without ever setting a foot on campus, and then started working on a second degree. By then, Capt. Mizzenmast made Lower Half and talked to a friend of his at BUPERS, pulled some strings for me and got me into an OTC. Six weeks later, I came out an ensign just two days after making SO3.” Applejack turned and focused hard eyes on Fluttershy once more. “Since then I’ve been busy putting out fires all over the world: Somalia, Syria, the Philippines, Myanmar – you name a place and I can neither confirm or deny I was there, though I’m sure the spent rounds will tell you a different story. And yes, I’m an efficient operator, which means I’ve taken lives. I don’t expect you to understand what that’s like, though given what you all did to me, maybe you do.” The two were silent for the longest time, before Fluttershy spoke. “You may think that being a doctor is easy, but it’s not, not at all.” “Don’t give me that shit – look where you are! Nowhere near a battlefield, in some small town—” “With limited supplies and having to triage the incoming wounded!” Fluttershy reminded her. “In case you forgot, the whole world is under assault! While you’ve been running around the planet, I’ve had to patch up the seriously wounded, some of which I can’t!” The look in Fluttershy’s cyan eyes was one of anger and pain. “Did you know that last week I had to treat wounded from the offensive in Nairobi? One of them was one of my students from when I was a teacher! And do you know what I had to do? Amputate the rest of his leg. He’s never going to walk again, and the last time I saw him, he was a straight-A student! Now he’s lost everything, and I had a front row seat for that! So don’t you dare give me that shit about hiding, damn you!” The two women stood there, old friends at odd due to an impasse of their own making. Finally, Applejack turned away. “My point still stands. We were friends once, but after what we did to Sunset – after what I did to Sunset – I don’t think that’s a gulf that can be repaired.” Applejack walked past her, saying nothing more. Fluttershy grabbed her shoulder as she passed. “AJ…she’s alive. Sunset’s alive!” “We don’t know that.” Green eyes bored into cyan ones. “And there’s no one that wants her back more than me. Which is why I’m doing this. I don’t know why you give a fuck, but I owe her and I have to do what’s right.” “You’re not the only one, AJ. I owe her as well. Maybe…we can do it together?” Applejack shrugged off the other woman’s grasp. “Fluttershy, I’m twenty-nine. I’m an adult woman. I gave up fairy tales, even the ones I wanted to believe, long ago.” Applejack reached up and pulled an apple from one of the trees. “Here – give these to the people you’re taking care of. At least you can put some apples to use.” She tossed it towards Fluttershy and departed. Fluttershy stood there, looking on in shock, as she was left alone in the apple orchard. PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2237BJUL30: The South African military was on its last legs. The once 550,000-strong combat force was now down to a handful of men and women, fighting a desperate struggle against the aliens. And now Pretoria burned, the capital of the proud nation reduced to cinders. At the moment, WO2 Rhebok was pretty sure he was the highest-ranking person in what was left of the South African military. He wasn’t even Army – he was SAAF – and he was leading what was left of the personnel under his command while trying to desperately hold the line here until reinforcements from the 5th Canadian Division would come in to save the day. At least, that was the plan. He didn’t want to tell his people that it was obvious they weren’t going to make it in time, or that even if they did, they might not live long enough to see it. But that didn’t matter; Rhebok’s orders were to hold the line at any cost and make sure that any civilians stupid enough to still remain in the capital were evacuated. So here he was, maintaining his position in the burnt-out remains of a shopping mall in one of the eastern neighborhoods, shouting orders into a radio and sending the thousand-or-so young men and women to assured deaths. In the distance he could see the burning white rays of alien energy fire trace into the nighttime sky, illuminating it like geometric lightning, dotted occasionally by the red blips of tracer fire while his forces desperately tried not to turn a semi-organized retreat into an all-out panicked “run for your lives” event. “Fireteam Delta Four,” he called into his radio. “What is your status? Please respond!” he shouted. They were the closest to the fighting and his best chance to find out what was going on. “Sir, we have to evacuate!” He turned to look at the able seaman standing next to him. Like him, AB Seebreiese was a fish out of water (in a matter of speaking), somehow having missed her deployment with the SAN during their last offensive. But given that said last offensive had become a literal last offensive, and now that the once-proud ships were underwater tombs off the coast of Madagascar, maybe it had been the best for her. “Seaman, where would we go?” he looked at her. “This is our nation. This is our fight.” “Sir, we don’t have to. Please, I’m afraid. Take me with you out of here and we can run away!” she pled. “No. Even if it’s our lives, this is our land, not theirs,” he hissed. “The streets run with South African blood and we will fight to the la—” The nearby wall exploded, sending brick and mortar flying. Rhebok and the seaman were knocked to the floor, but the blast completely enveloped one of his other personnel. He forced himself back to his feet, but as he did, he could see fluid, inky shapes coming towards them. The aliens had arrived and there was nowhere else to flee. He turned to see Seebreiese knocked unconscious by the blast. She was beautiful, and perhaps if they had been civilians and had known one another, he would have probably tried to court her. But that was a pipe dream; they were now to be killed. He reached for his sidearm and screamed, “YOU WILL NOT TAKE OUR LANDS!” He fired off the magazine at them, taking down one. He was about to reload when a ray of energy snaked out and hit his arm. The appendage exploded in a blast of blood, bone and decompressed body fluids, dropping him to the ground even as the wound self-cauterized itself from the blast. More of them waddled in, almost casually, as though they would savor murdering him, both of them. Dazed by pain, he crawled towards Seebreiese, who was coming to. They would go together, probably the last of South Africa’s defenders, but he wouldn’t break down before them. “Do your worst, naaiers,” he hissed at them as they brought up their weapons. But instead of feeling the pain of death, he watched as blasts of violet energy hit them from just above him. The lances of amethyst power turned into tethers of a sort, and the aliens found that they couldn’t move – even their attempts at firing their weapons turned their energy blasts turned the projectiles into impossibly-slow bolts of light that moved slower than clotted honey. A second later, arcs of blue occurred as the monsters began screaming – and Rhebok and Seebriesie watched as the aliens were suddenly bisected as if they were nothing. A second later, the final one fell, literally split in two, and as dark green ichor from its body joined the growing pool on the ground, the two South Africans stood to look at their savior. Standing there, holding a staff seemingly made from pure electricity, was a cloaked figure with a human shape, wearing what looked to be a bizarre combination of medieval armor and modern body armor. The figure faced them, then pointed out the door. “Reinforcements are on the way,” the figure said, the voice unidentifiable due to vocal modulation. As the figure turned to head back out to the fighting, Rhebok asked, “Who are you?” The figure turned back to him and though he couldn’t see a face, the officer swore he could almost feel that the mysterious person was somehow smiling at him. “You picked a great spot to fight,” was all that was said and then the figure rushed out into the night. A second later, troops burst in. “Hey, we’re from the Halifax Rifles, 36 Canadian Brigade,” one of the soldiers said. “Who’s in command here?” Seebriesie helped Rhebok to his feet as he said in a shaky voice, “I am, Sergeant. Warrant Officer Rhebok.” “Sgt. Maple Branch,” the sergeant said, signaling to his medic to assist the ailing officer. “I’d salute you, sir, but I see you’re not in the best condition at the moment. Anyway, where are we right now and what’s the situation?” As the medic reached him, Rhebok finally passed out from his pain. In his stead, Seebriesie faced the Canadian soldier, feeling shame about her earlier panic. As the medic took the injured officer from her, Seebriesie looked at the newcomers and said, “Thanks for saving us. We wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for you and your strange, armored figure.” “Strange armored figure?” Branch asked. When the seaman explained, the sergeant immediately turned to one of his others. “Get the info to headquarters. It looks like the Queen’s here – we might stand a chance.” “Queen?” Now it was Seebriesie’s turn for questions, and Branch explained as best as he could and her eyes opened wide. “She said we picked a great spot to fight. I don’t understand.” “Yeah, me neither,” the Canadian replied. “Anyway, where are we?” “It’s a residential neighborhood on the east side of Pretoria, nothing significant about it, as far as I know,” Seebriesie responded. “It’s called Equestria.” > The Problems are Compounding > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 200156SJUL30: Applejack dreamed again. She was back on the farm, sitting at the dinner table and doing her homework. She seemed to be the only one present in the house, even though it looked lived in. She paused and looked at herself. Though she couldn’t see her reflection unless she went to the bathroom, something told her she was her teenage self once more. “A recollection of happier times.” Applejack turned towards the stairs, seeing Sunset walk down them. She looked calm and at ease, and she wore the clothing that she had the day before everything went south – the day before the sleepover that Bloom and her friends had ruined and had cost everyone everything. Applejack smiled. “You know,” she said, gesturing to the paperwork, “it was you that got me interested in math. I really never cared for it until you showed me how it worked in ballistics.” Even as she spoke, she wondered why she spoke with her current vocal affectations and not the one she’d lived with for most of her life. “Maybe you knew, before everyone else, I was always meant to hold a gun.” “I never thought that, AJ.” Sunset walked over to the chair and sat down. “We were family. I just wanted you to do well.” “Some family I was.” “I thought we agreed that you would let go of the past.” “I did – until I ran into Fluttershy. That bitch is here, and I have to go to Canterlot with her. Did you know—” “—that she married Flash?” Sunset finished for her and Applejack looked at her, shocked. “I just know these things, you know.” “Magic, right.” Applejack was silent for the longest time. “How can I forgive her? Forgive what we did to you?” “It’s not your duty to forgive her, AJ; that’s mine – and I already did. Besides, I need you to work with her to find my book and then find the others. I need you all to come together.” “Sunset, what if…what if I can’t? Fluttershy didn’t even know I was still alive. What if the others aren’t? Or they’re in a coma or something? What if I fail? Fail you?” Sunset went over and hugged her foster sister. “You won’t fail,” Sunset told her with a smile. “Because I believe in you. And I believe in her. Work together and we’ll work from there.” “How can you be so sure?” Sunset gave Applejack another smile. “This above all: to thine own self be true, Honesty.” Applejack sat up in the bed, running a hand over her face to try to dispel the tiredness from her eyes. “I wish you’d just come back and talk to me again – in person,” she said to the empty room. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 200208TJUL30: In the dim candlelight of the room, a young woman with long cerise hair in a braid that went over her shoulder worked out on a bench press. Ripped like a bodybuilder, she was proud of her muscled form, especially given that she’d been frail and weak as a child, and had been a late bloomer in high school as a result. Not the case now: between her form and her beauty, she caught the eye of just about everyone available. Not that it mattered much to her; her life wasn’t defined by the attentions of men or women. Finally sitting up, she draped a towel over her breasts; though she was wearing a sports bra at the moment, her shirt was being fixed – a necessity, given that because of her build, typical women’s clothing no longer fit her and she more often than not had to wear men’s attire. It didn’t matter much anyway, she knew – the other person in the room hardly cared how she was dressed. “You done sewing my shirt yet?” she called out to her partner. “Yeah, almost done,” he said, sewing the last stitch in place before biting the end off and tying it in a knot. Finally, he threw the shirt over to her. “See if this works,” he said. She removed the town then slid it on. “Like a charm,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, Grady.” “No problem,” he replied with an equal grin. “So you’re going to actually stay up all night?” “Don’t have much of a choice,” she told him. “With Sweetie down, Bloom and I have to do double work.” “And yet I’ve never seen her do that. In fact, she’s probably in bed right now, snuggled against whoever it is she’s with tonight.” “Grady, I wish you’d lay off her, okay? She’s a friend of mine.” Gradient moved over to his bedroll and looked at Scootaloo. “Are we going to have this conversation again? Because I swear, it always ends the same way and you never listen anyway.” “Look, I keep an eye out on all my friends, you included.” She gave a soft smile. “It’s too bad you’re gay, otherwise you would be the only guy for me, you know that?” Gradient shook his head. “Gay or not, you have to be desperate if you want me.” Scootaloo laughed. “Same old Gradient – always puts a smile on my face. See?” He ran his hands through his long, shaggy cobalt-blue hair; at one time he considered himself a debonair metrosexual, but now, with survival more of a priority he had to admit he’d let himself go a little from those days. “Well, if it makes you feel better, you’re more of a match for me than most of the guys I dated back before Decimation.” He pointed at his chest. “Hell, I’m wearing the t-shirt you gave me at that concert we went to the week before it all happened.” She turned, her purple eyes looking at what he wore. A lazy smile came over her face. “It is! I remember that shirt! We went to the Broken Desktops concert that year. You were annoyed that they didn’t have a pink shirt for guys, so I got you the largest woman size they had.” Her eyes filled with nostalgia. “Good times.” “Yeah. I’m going to sleep now. Mind if I shut off the candle?” She shook her head. “Naah, I can use the night vision goggles if need be.” He reached over, snuffed out the candle, leaving the two in the darkness, save for the starlit skies above. After a few minutes, she asked, “Grady?” “Yeah, I’m still awake,” he said with an unconvincing yawn. “When this war is over, let’s get married, okay?” “You’re joking – I can tell you’re joking,” he commented. “No, I’m serious! You haven’t really dated anyone since forever, and with all my personal issues, I just never got around to the dating scene. So we’re perfect for each other.” “No, it means we’re pathetic, Scoots.” “Hey, you’re a guy, and it works regardless,” she said, joking. “Plus, in all seriousness, you’ve always been there for me. If there’s one lesson I learned in my life, it’s stick by your friends. Believe me, I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.” “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he told her. “Look, if you want me to relieve you in a few hours, that means I need to get some sleep, okay?” “Yeah, I gotcha. Night, Grady.” “Night, Scoots.” Now seated in a lonely vigil while keeping an eye out for anything unusual, it gave her time to think – something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. For starters, the bombed-out area she was in had once been Southside, the more rundown part of town. It had been where she’d ended up after all the fallout from the whole Anon-a-Miss debacle had occurred, after she’d been expelled from Canterlot High and ended up having to transfer to Southside High. That had the add-on effect of her missing out on college, which meant that her parents kicked her out of the house at eighteen, making her live on her own. Fortunately, she was able to move in with Gradient, who had graduated the year before and was taking classes at Canterlot Community College. Between that and a thrilling job with Canterlot Collections as a sanitation engineer (aka waste manager, aka garbage collector), she was finally able to put her past behind her, especially given that due to distance, her friendship with Sweetie and Bloom had faded away. Then Decimation came, and changed everything: Gradient’s boyfriend had been killed, their home and life decimated, and through it all they had not been successfully evacuated, instead being abandoned by the government when they could no longer hold the line against the alien invasion. Hundreds of thousands had died that day, and those who had been unfortunate enough to remain behind in Canterlot now had to eke out a life that was part modern, part medieval. That had been her life for the past five years. And though she’d found out, much to her surprise, that Bloom and Sweetie had survived and had been trapped here as well. And now the three of them rekindled their friendship and forged that into a weapon, a trio of surprisingly capable snipers who had ended plenty of alien lives at the end of their rifles. And even though things weren’t as they were, Scootaloo allowed herself to feel comfortable once more with her friends. But now things were changing. Sweetie was married and pregnant, bowing out of their battles as a result. Bloom had found herself a guy to call her own, and they were slowly but surely moving on with their lives as much as they could given the situation. And that meant Scootaloo would once again be on the outside looking in, left in a dead-end life while being in love with a guy she absolutely knew could never return her affections. As if to add insult to injury, at that exact moment, the radio beside her crackled to life. “Olympus to Moerae. Are either of you up? Over.” Scootaloo picked it up. “This is Atropos, go ahead.” “Good! I…I just needed someone to talk to right now,” Sweetie said over the line. “Do you mind switching to channel 17? Over.” Scootaloo twisted the knob on the radio just as Bloom’s voice then came over the line. “Sorry for takin’ so long. Was…a bit tied up.” “Oh?” Sweetie said, her voice holding an impish lilt. “Yeah, and Ah think he’s the one this time.” “Really? Spill, Bloom, spill!” Bloom sighed. “Fedora. Yeah, he’s a bit older, but he’s a sweet guy and just mah style.” “Bloomie, we’re adults. Age ain’t nothing but a number, you know.” Scootaloo wanted to say something but then was cut off by Bloom’s words: “He ain’t that old, Sweetie. Yeah, he’s about five years older than me, sure, but he makes me smile. Anyway, why’d ya call?” “Well…the baby kicked and I didn’t want to wake Button. He’s been working night and day, so I wanted to give him a break, but I wanted to share the news with someone.” “Well, that’s great! Maybe when the war’s over, we c’n do a double weddin’ – a real weddin’, where we can be brides as pretty as pictures!” “Yeah, and Scoots can be our maid of honor!” Sweetie said. “I mean, she’s not tied up, right?” Silence ran over the line for a few seconds before Sweetie suddenly realized she’d picked the worst words to say at the worst possible time. Sure enough, Scootaloo got the unintended message. “Battery’s dying,” she lied. “I’m going to cut the call.” Bloom, to her credit, tried to immediately salvage things. “Look, Scoots—” “Atropos, out.” She switched to the main channel, knowing that even the two of them would have enough sense not to bother taking their argument there. She was sure enough anyway that once morning set in and Scootaloo went back to her apartment, Bloom would be there to apologize and try to make peace. And of course, in the end, Scootaloo would forgive her friends for that. Because, sadly, maybe that was all she was really good for, anyway. PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 200536SJUL30: Two figures jogged up Evergreen Hill, running past the apple trees that lined the main pathway. The cloying scent of the fruits filled the crepuscular air and it made Fluttershy think of happier times. As the first rays of dawn poked over the horizon, starting the day, she had to wonder if others she knew were seeing this same morning and thought like she did… …or if the aliens saw the beauty of the waking world as well, instead of just a place to slaughter. Reaching the crest of the hill, the pair stopped. “Well, you’re getting better at this,” Flash said to his wife. “Yeah, thank Boltie,” she said. “I wouldn’t have done it all without her.” “You know, you’re supposed to keep in shape,” he reminded her. “Yes, but I always took the swimming portion of the endurance tests, not the running. And with there being no pool here, I’ve had to adjust,” Fluttershy admitted. “In any case, I needed to get better so we can go back to Canterlot. It’s not going to be easy there.” “Not by half,” a voice behind them said. “And this is almost literally a walk in the park for me.” The pair turned to see Applejack standing there, having jogged up the hill not in PT attire, but instead her NAVPATs. “Next time you run, you should get used to running in your ACUs. The more weight you can handle, the better. They’re not just for show.” “AJ? But I thought—” “I can’t do this alone. I would rather do so, but I can’t. Even I need to acknowledge my own shortcomings…to be honest with myself.” She looked at Fluttershy and the gulf between the two, wide as ever. “I know,” Fluttershy spoke. “I had a dream last night where Sunset told me I wasn’t being kind to you. That I was so busy focused on my own pain that I didn’t acknowledge how you were feeling about all this.” Applejack looked surprised. “She spoke to you last night as well?” “She spoke to you, too?” Flash looked at both women and asked, “Ladies, is there something I’m missing?” “No, but it’s something we are,” Applejack said. “Look, I…I don’t trust you. Either of you. I can’t, not after what happened. But for her…. For Sunset, I need to learn how to do that again.” She offered her hand to Fluttershy. “She needs us.” “I still think you’re a self-centered bitch for what you did, and I’m not sure I can forgive that either,” Fluttershy admitted. But she took Applejack’s hand in her own. “But we started somewhere years ago.” “Yeah, we have done this dance before, haven’t we?” “And we were just as stupid then,” Fluttershy said, nodding. “All that time and we never bothered to check to see if the messages to each other were really from one another. And ultimately we found out it was just because Sunset used lookalike numbers on Google Voice.” “We were such idiots back then, weren’t we?” “Absolutely.” Watching from a distance, both Chrysalis and Tempest grinned. “She really needed that,” the spymaster said. “Absolutely. I’ve known Jackie for years and she has a habit of carrying around guilt like an albatross around her neck, especially when she doesn’t have to.” Tempest’s eyes slid over to look at her friend from the side. “Kinda like someone else I know.” “Temp, I’m the spymaster, which means I’m the one who gets to play mindgames, not you,” Chrysalis said, mock-pouting. “We girls gotta stick together, you know,” Tempest said, turning away from her point halfway up the hill. “Besides, today’s a day for us to relax before it’s go-time, right? So go spend it with your guy. Because you don’t know what will happen.” “I know,” Chrysalis said under her breath as she and Tempest jogged back down the hill. “And that’s what I’m afraid of.” Meanwhile, in Spearhead’s office, two colonels were having a meeting. And one of them was definitely not happy about it. “This is bullshit, Shining, and you know it!” Rising from his chair, Spearhead held the printed documents in his hands. Orders that had come in a few minutes ago and ones he was dutybound to follow. Shining, seated in a chair across from him, nodded. “Spear, we do what we have to. Even my hands are tied on this one.” Spearhead’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? You act as if you’re completely surprised. After all, you’re the one that sent out the message to the Mountain after our meeting, and lo and behold, I now have orders to transfer Cpt. Sentry and Maj. Fluttershy to your command, effective immediately.” Shining looked at his colleague. “Those were my orders, Spear. From the Admiral, no less.” “And you didn’t feel the need to tell me beforehand?” Shining looked at the papers in Spear’s hand. “I have yet to actually read those documents. The only reason I even know they exist is because one of your sergeants told me about it and said she’d bring me the documentation later.” He sighed. “Look, I know what you’re thinking: that I’m taking your best doctor and one of your most promising company officers, is that it? Because if that’s the case, I can call the Mountain and have new officers here to replace them by the end of the week.” “No. You, more than any person here, should know why.” Spear slapped the papers on the table. “They don’t deserve this, Shining. You know as well as I do if you take them, one of them or the other – probably Fluttershy – is not going to make it back.” The smile vanished from Shining’s face. “I know. Believe me, Spear, I know. But they’re both from Canterlot, and my orders are clear.” “Shining, those two are….” Spearhead sighed. “Flash doesn’t need to be like us. He doesn’t need to know what it’s like to lose the woman he loves the most. I still grieve over losing Rosevine, Sugarstripe and Blueblaze. And you’ve told me before how empty you feel without Cadance and Flurry. Do you want him to end up like either of us?” “No, no I don’t. And honestly, when Jackie had reservations of working with them, my gut instinct was to agree with her. But they knew this unicorn girl as well. And that means that the safety of the world has to take priority over your feelings and mine. Besides, this is settled and it’s going to happen.” “I just hope you’re not making a mistake that’s going to cost a life, Shining. I really don’t.” “Yeah,” he said softly. “Same here.” CANTERLOT, COLORADO 201441TJUL30: Sure enough, the moment she arrived at the apartment she shared with Gradient, there was a note for Scootaloo to join Bloom at her assigned location over by Blackdot Avenue. Patrols by the Octos had increased there as of late, and Button and Zeus wanted to know why – and it was a big enough priority to split the Moerae for the time being. “Look, you know she didn’t mean it,” Bloom told Scootaloo. “Yes she did; she just didn’t mean to say it like that,” Scootaloo grunted. “Look, I really don’t want to have this discussion to begin with.” “Ah c’n see that.” Bloom turned away from her weapon and looked at her friend. “Look, we want you to be happy, you know. And Ah’m not sure that stayin’ with a guy you love who can’t ever give you what you want is a good thing for you.” Grabbing her own weapon, Scootaloo settled in; if she was going to have this argument with Bloom now, she may as well be of some use. As she got into position, she noticed a patrol moving two blocks beyond Blackdot, over on Treeline Parkway. From the way they moved, she could easily take one down, but unfortunately there was no real way to tell which one was in command – or even if a decapitation strike would be effective. “Scoots, Ah’m being serious here,” Bloom told her. “Y’ might love Grady, but he’s never gonna look at you like that.” Scootaloo closed her eyes, swore under her breath, and then looked at her friend. “You don’t know that.” “How long have you been livin’ with him now? Ah mean, you told me that he had a live-in boyfriend when y’ first moved into his place. He ain’t dated anyone since, an’ you don’t tell us how things are goin’ in the smoochin’ department.” “Maybe I like to keep that part of my life private?” Scootaloo hissed. “I mean, I really don’t need to hear conversations about how Sweetie rode Button until she got pregnant; or for that matter, how your guy hits your G-spot. You know, some of us like to keep our private lives private?” “Scoots, Ah’m serious! You’re just hurtin’ yourself!” Bloom pled. “Ah know y’ love him. It’s obvious. But he can’t love you.” “Yeah, whatever.” She turned back to her scope. “Stop bein’ ornery and listen, will ya?” “I did listen. I found someone I love. And maybe he doesn’t love me the same way. But in this world…at least I know I have someone. Probably the best I can ask for.” Letting her anger and frustration override her common sense, Scootaloo focused on the lead Octo, then pulled the trigger. Her rifle barked out, flames curling away from the muzzle as a single 7.62 NATO round sliced through the air, crossing the half-kilometer and tearing its way through one of the eyecoverings of the Octo. It went down with a scream and the others reacted, starting to change their colors to match the surroundings. But Scootaloo was quicker, having pulled the trigger once more. A second bullet speared forward, and a breath later a second dead Octo hit the ground, its dark green lifeblood staining the cracked and shattered street pavement. “Guess that ends the argument fer now,” Bloom said, scrambling to her feet. It was time to scatter. “But Ah ain’t gonna let this one go, Scoots. Not at all.” “Everything that had to be said has already been said,” Scootaloo said, slinging her rifle over her shoulder. “Anything after that is just words.” The moment they left the building, they were greeted by the sizzle of energy blasts striking the location where they’d been; the Octos had quickly triangulated where the fire had come from and were responding in kind. Above them the office space where they had been detonated in a shower of fire and pulverized concrete. Chunks of building materials rained down on the two, sending both scattering, which the enemy took note of immediately. Thin beams of white energy crossed the street, headed towards the pair but thankfully missing. Both Bloom and Scootaloo returned fire, but given that they were using sniper rifles, their weapons were not optimized for the kind of battle they now found themselves in – once the Octos sent in enough extra numbers, it would overwhelm the pair pretty much instantly, and given that they were an area of concern, that probably would happen fairly soon. Cueing her radio, Bloom called out, “Moerae to anyone in the vicinity of Circle Square – we’re pinned down by the Octos and need backup!” “This is Aura,” a voice called over the line. “My troops and I are nearby. How much opposition are you facing?” Bloom looked at Scootaloo, who immediately peeked her head out from cover and a second later ducked back down, shaking her head. Bloom hissed into her radio, “We’re not sure.” A second later the ruins of a storefront behind them went up in flames and she said, “Isn’t gonna matter though if you guys don’t get here in time!” “This is Ixion,” a gruff, male voice chimed in a few seconds later. “We’re nearby as well and on the way.” “We’re moving as fast as we can! We’ll try to give you cover. Aura out.” Initially, Scootaloo tried moving into a firing position that would let her longer barreled weapon fire. In the confined location that they were in, she was forced to use her pistol instead, which meant reduced range and power. With any luck, the Octos wouldn’t realize this and would either stay away, increasing their chances of survival; or close the gap and get into the range of the pistols. “You know, when we were younger I never thought I’d be in this situation,” she said, trying to make small talk. Also in the same situation, Bloom pulled out her pistol as well. Unlike Scootaloo’s weapon, however, Bloom’s was a typical “Apple Bloom Special” – in this case a 3D-printed gun based on various blueprints she’d found on the internet years ago. She’d kept them out of curiosity, and now was using them to make her own weapons. Sure, they didn’t hold up as well as the ones everyone else used and she had to replace the plastic regularly, but in the ruins of Canterlot, plastic wasn’t exactly something that was hard to obtain. Plus, there was an additional advantage that she had over Scootaloo’s sidearm: longer barrel, meaning longer range. The round spun true through the air, tearing a small hole through a third alien and dropping it to the ground. But with half the original patrol down, that was all but assured that there would be a retaliatory response. And less than a second later, it came: three white bolts came within striking range, and while Bloom was lucky enough that they weren’t close enough to kill, one of them hit the muzzle of her pistol, melting it instantly. She dropped the useless weapon as the scent of vaporized plastic filled the air. “You okay?” Scootaloo asked, returning fire. “Not at the moment, no,” she said. The redhead then pulled out her emergency weapon: a revolver that had been in her family at least since her grandfather. She never inquired as to where it had originated, but she found it fascinating enough that when it became time to take arms, she made it hers. Of course, it made it a burden to reload where needed, but at least she had enough plastic left over from her work to make enough moon clips. She then opened fire, her revolver barking out a tinny sound as the bullets left the weapon. She wasn’t sure if her rounds had made the mark, but it would at least keep the bastards at bay a little longer, and right now every second counted. “How much longer until reinforcements get here?” Scootaloo asked. “Fuck if’n Ah know!” Bloom replied, dumping her spent cartidges and slapping another moon clip in. She had several on hand, but even those were going to run out sooner or later as the battle dragged on. “Ah’m sure Cotton’s movin’ as fast as she c—” A massive beam of energy tore into the space between the two of them, slagging part of the car and sending both flying out of the way. Burnt metal flew everywhere, and one of the two screamed. A second later, flames and smoke filled the air, as well as the scent of burnt ozone, as if a lightning strike had just charbroiled the local surroundings. Grunting, Scootaloo forced herself back to her feet, ignoring her rifle for the moment. “Looks like the fuckers brought out their heavy guns,” she groaned. “Reinforcements or not, we can’t stay here, Bloom. We need to get moving.” Silence. “Bloom?” Scootaloo turned to see Bloom, on the ground, gritting her teeth and with a large piece of shrapnel embedded in her right leg. “Looks like Ah ain’t goin’ nowhere,” she grunted. “Don’t pull it out; that looks like it might be near an artery.” “Ain’t gonna matter, Scoots,” the redhead told her friend. “No way Cotton’s gonna get here in time.” She reached behind her, pulling out her remaining clips and offered both those and her revolver to Scootaloo. “Leave me your rifle,” she said. “Ah c’n cover for ya, an’ at least one of us’ll get out of this alive.” “What? Why are you….” A second later, the realization sank in. “No! What the fuck are you even thinking, Bloom?” “Ah’m thinkin’ Ah’m a dead woman one way or ‘nother,” she admitted. “At least one o’ us has t’ live for Sweetie’s sake. Can’t leave her baby without an aunt.” “Oh, no, don’t you dare pull that shit on me!” Scoots snarled. “I’m not leaving you behind!” Bloom was going to respond, but then a keening cry sounded in the air. “Great, those bastards are loosin’ whatever it is that’s makin’ that sound,” she grunted. “Definitely can’t be good. Y’ need to get out of here, Scoots!” “I said no! I’m not leaving you behind, and that’s final!” “Awww…you two are so cute,” another voice said behind them. The two of them looked to see a girl their age with short sky-blue hair and lilac eyes looking down at them. “Should I go find you two a hotel room?” “Classy as always, Cotton,” Scootaloo said, glad to see the woman. “Well, she can do classy. As for me, you two are buying me and my folks a round or two back at the bar,” a heavy-set man in his forties with thinning teal hair grunted as he scooted right next to Scootaloo. “So, I see you made some friends over there and they want to share the love.” “Yeah, Build Up,” Bloom grunted. “As y’ can see, they love me soooo much. Don’t know how much more lovin’ Ah can take.” “I can tell,” Cotton said, signaling for two of her own guys, who immediately fired on the Octos. “We’ll get you out of here, but it’s gonna be a long haul. You going to be able to walk?” “I can carry her,” Scootaloo said, without hesitation. “Lucky you,” Cotton cracked to Bloom. “I can’t get my husband to do foreplay right and you’re getting the whole romantic treatment.” “Fuck you, Cotton,” both Bloom and Scootaloo said to their snarky ally. “Yeah, but I’m straight, so you’ll just have to dream about it,” she said with a grin. “Cotton,” Build Up said, cutting her off. He then waved two of his folks and gave them orders to clear an escape route. Looking back to Scootaloo, he said, “Run down 43rd, then make a turn at Rainbow Ridge. The emergency shelter should be open, and the guards there can escort you the rest of the way. We’ll call ahead for a medic.” “We’ll buy you as much time as we can, but you’re going to have to move fast,” Cotton added. The unnatural howls got louder and she said, “Those things – whatever they are – are getting closer and I’m pretty sure none of us want to find out what they look like, especially if they made mincemeat of our other people earlier!” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Scootaloo said, slinging her rifle around her shoulder, then scooping up Bloom as if it were nothing. “You just make it back, okay?” “You’re buying the brews,” Lightning Flare, one of Cotton’s gunners, snarked. “Yeah, and I drink a lot!” Plum Star, one of Build Up’s, added. “See you two back at HQ!” “Don’t need to tell us twice!” Gingerly moving so that she wouldn’t aggravate Bloom’s injuries further, the two beat a hasty retreat away from the area. “Well, we don’t have the dead weight to worry about anymore, folks,” Cotton ordered, “so we don’t have to be nice! Cut those sons of bitches down!” She and her patrol immediately fired as one, filling the space in between the two groups with gunfire. The Octos gave as good as they got, forcing the humans into cover. Tracers and plasma beams filled the air and the stench like burnt hair filled the immediate surroundings. Though the Resistance took down several Octos, Plum Star and Rainbow Writer died immediately, with the former taking a laser blast almost literally right between his eyes and the latter having part of her head blown off by the Octo’s heavy beam. The keening noise grew louder, now accompanied by weird-sounding snarls. “Cotton, we need to get the fuck out of here!” Build Up told her. “They should hopefully be far enough that we can do a staggered retreat and lead them away in the opposite direction, towards 45th and Grassglen.” “No shit!” she shouted back as a beam sizzled its way past her arm. “Okay, we’re getting out of here while we still can! Grab the lost weapons and rig Plum and Rainbow’s bodies – we’re not going to let them be used for whatever sick shit the Octos do with our dead!” While Build Up his troops out of the area, she set the charges on her fallen, fighting back the tears – Rain had been her best friend since high school and to see her go like this ripped Cotton’s heart out, but she couldn’t give up now. She took her dead friend’s hand in hers as she set the charge in the other one. “Guess I’m the one naming my daughter after you, Rains,” she said softly. “Can’t cry now – I’ll do it when I’m safe.” “Cotton, we gotta go,” Equinox Voyage, another one of her guys said. “Yeah, I know.” Setting the timer on the charges for three minutes, the two of them grabbed Plum and Rainbow’s rifles and then beat an orderly retreat down the street, scooting behind safety and returning fire as quick as they could. Thankfully humans moved much faster than the Octos did, so they wouldn’t be able to keep up easily, and as long as they were lucky and didn’t sustain any more injuries, they would live to see the next day. In the distance, she heard gunfire, likely from Build Up’s group. Chances were, he ran into a group of Octos trying to flank them, but the gunfire stopped quickly, and with no sounds of plasma weapons going off, it sounded as though he’d gotten the drop on them and they were free and clear. Additionally, she noted the Octos giving them chase were now backing off, which meant for the moment that they had succeeded. “Okay, looks like we’re in the clear,” Cotton told her people. “Let’s hustle it up and get back to base!” “Yeah, I can practically taste them brews!” one of her guys said. “Yeah,” she said limply. She continued to force Rainbow’s death out of her mind. When she made it to safety, only then could she cry her heart out and properly mourn her friend. But for now, Button had put her in charge of her patrol, and it was her duty to make sure that that they made it to safety. Breaking into a jog, she turned the corner onto Grasglen Boulevard… …and became witness to an abattoir, as unnatural beasts howled and rushed towards them, teeth and sinews on full display. PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 202307SJUL30: She couldn’t sleep. Chrysalis got out of bed, leaving Shining behind in it. They’d went to bed early, opting to skip out on the pre-deployment celebrations so they could spend time together as a couple before things got professional again. That seemed like it happened all the more nowadays, and that there was precious little time they spent together as lovers and too much time as colleagues. Her hands traveled down her toned belly, wondering what it would be like if she’d been pregnant. She hadn’t told Shining yet, but she was the kind of girl who wanted lots and lots of kids. She was, admittedly, an only child, but that was more because her mother’s illness prevented her from having any more children; her mother had plenty of siblings, as did her mother, and her mother before that. Chrysalis chuckled silently, remembering that her father, a tenured entomologist at Badlands University, had once joked that the women in Chrysalis’ maternal family “bred like insects”, and that was hard to argue. She herself wanted lots of kids with Shining; maybe not the nineteen and counting that family on TV years ago had (even she had to admit that was going too far), but the proverbial “baseball team’s worth” sounded fine by her. But the future could jeopardize that. What if they were to arrive in Canterlot to find that Shining’s wife had somehow survived? He was technically still married; he had never had her legally declared deceased because the legal mechanisms to do so just simply didn’t exist. In a desperate attempt to survive, no one simply worried whether anyone was truly still alive or not; for all intents and purposes, they either were, or they weren’t. But even still, there was always the chance that she was; just a month ago Chrysalis had read a news article about a soldier whose wife was believed to have been killed during Decimation, but by a minor miracle, during the Boston debacle, she turned up alive…even though she’d ended up being one of the ones who started the riots. Fortunately, she’d been arrested rather than “pacified” by the Diamond Dogs, and though husband and wife united, she would have to sit in prison for her crimes while he continued fighting (President Sombra deciding to be “benevolent” and sentenced her to prison for the rest of the war instead of executing her for treason). So it was possible that they could stroll onto the streets of downtown Canterlot, Cadance could run up and reunite with Shining…and Chrysalis would lose the man she loved more than anything. In many ways, that would hurt worse than if he’d died in battle. Part of her wanted to go find a doctor, have him yank out her IUD, then for her to run back and climb back on top of Shining until she got a bun in her oven…but she knew that was just stupid. She was a professional, and they’d agreed to wait on children until after they married, which neither had really rushed plans for. A wedding just seemed like a frivolous thing at the moment, and given that they’d been together for a couple of years now, she partially felt married to him as is. And like all wives in love, she worried that she would lose him. Not to war, but to his actual wife. Silently, she went back to bed and crawled back in, snuggling next to him and feeling the warmth of his body and the strength of his muscles as she tried to go back to sleep. Maybe tomorrow would bring her worst fear, but for now, at least, she had him. For now, at least, she would never let him go. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 202047TJUL30: “How’s she doing, Healthy?” Sweetie Belle asked Healthy Life, the current doctor on duty. Mostly self-taught, Healthy had been working on her pre-med studies when Decimation had occurred. Given that only a handful of people had survived with any sort of medical training, by virtue of her classes Healthy had become the de facto chief medical officer – and even she had to admit she was well in over her head. Healthy gestured to one of the medical beds and on it, Apple Bloom, hooked up to an IV and mercifully asleep. “It was very close. A little more to the right and the shrapnel would’ve severed an artery and we’d have lost her. As it is, it’s going to take a while for her to heal, so she’s off the combat roster until further notice.” “You mean permanently,” Sweetie told her. “When my husband hears about this, he’s going to insist that she come off for good. She’s our top engineer and technical guru – we can’t afford to lose her.” She sighed. “I know she’s going to hate that, but that’s not my call to make.” “Well, to be honest, it’s not her I’m worried about. I’m more worried about Cotton. She was the only one who survived whatever the hell hit them, she’s severely injured to the point that she’s going to be permanently scarred, and I don’t mean just physically. I’m not a psychiatrist, but whatever the hell it was that she saw…it’s snapped her mind.” “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, Healthy, just let me know.” “Yeah, but I suspect you can’t exactly conjure up miracles on a whim, can you?” “No,” Sweetie said, recalling a girl – several girls – who once could…and the end of that at her own hands. “No, I can’t.” Meanwhile, back at their apartment, Button looked over some computers, with Zeus, several patrol leaders and Scootaloo standing behind him. “We lost two patrol teams,” he growled. “I want to know what the fuck hit us that hard.” “Well, fortunately, that was in a part of town that CPD and the CSP had covered with closed-circuit cameras, due to the proximity to the state capitol,” Tech Type, seated at one of the laptops, said. “My team checked them last month and they were still working, so we had them recording on a loop, feeding data to the mainframes at the capitol building. So with any luck, we should have a recording of whatever this new threat is.” “Not sure of what would be worse,” Scootaloo said, folding her arms. “A new type of alien or if they had some sort of special warfare soldiers.” “You saw the bodies of our dead,” Button told her. “Whatever it was that killed them, it wasn’t anything less than an animal. Say what you will about the Goddamn Octos, but even they don’t act like wild animals.” “I know. That’s what scares me, Button.” “Okay, looks like the cameras picked up something,” Tech said to the group. “Let me bring up the footage and…what the fuck?” Onscreen, grainy timestamped video showed the fight between their forces and the new assailants…and what they saw horrified them. The creatures acted like animals, ripping off arms, tearing out throats and assaulting the militia without a care for their lives. Even though gunfire tore apart the new creatures easily, there were simply too many of them as they appeared through rips created by the Octos. Both patrol teams were eventually overwhelmed by the beasts. Eventually it devolved into an orgy of blood, with the beasts feeding on their dead, slaking their hunger before eventually following a signal sent by the Octos, heading uniformly towards a rip just as much as if they had been trained to follow a dog whistle. After several minutes, slowly, painfully, Cotton started to move, crawling down the street covered in blood and leaving a severed leg behind. The people watched the lone survivor painfully crawl out of camera view before Tech Type turned off the camera, then ran for the nearest window in order to throw up. “What the fuck was that?” a voice said. “See if you can bring up a better image on those…things,” Zeus said, his blue eyes taking on a hard cast. “Yeah,” Button agreed, looking at the computer. “Tech, are you up to it?” “No,” she said, wiping her mouth and feeling the tang of bile in her throat still, “but we lost good people from those…things. We need to know how to stop them.” She sat back down at the computer and brought up the footage again, this time focusing on the creatures. “Can we clear that up?” Zeus asked. “Yeah, let me see what I can do. We are talking technology that’s nearly a decade old, after all.” She fiddled around with the settings a bit, ran it through some filters and police-grade equipment until she got the computer systems to give her a composite. Pointing to another screen, she said, “From what the system can identify, that thing is the leader – the alpha, if you will.” On the second screen was a nightmarish figure that looked quadrupedal…but quadrupedal was a relative term. If anything, it looked like a severely deformed human that was made to walk on its knuckles, like an ape. The face was small, scrunched and reminiscent of a rat; the ears were pointed and enlarged on the side of a head that barely had a neck and almost seemed to merge directly into the body. The hands were large and splayed, while the feet were small and flat, with the toes apparently having merged together. The creature wore no clothing and was biologically like a human woman; even if technically nude not a single one of the guys felt anything less than revulsion. Lastly two more features stood out: the creature had avocado-green skin, as if a mockery of a human; however, she had long, ragged blue-and-lilac hair that draped down from top of her pointed, semi-cylindrical head. Similar tufts of hair adorned her forearms and shins, as well as her pubic hair. Lastly, receded orange eyes were sunken into the face, with the sclera not present and the pupil being a long bar, similar to that of a goat. The group looked at the mockery of a human on the screen. “Did they…did they try to create their own humans in order to kill us off?” Scootaloo, horrified by the creature on screen, asked. “I don’t know,” Zeus stated, “but I hope to God we don’t find out.” > Iðunn > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE, OKLAHOMA 210506SJUL30: Five in the morning, a time when most reasonable people were asleep. However, in a farming community like Ponyville, that was reasonable for most people, and so the civilian population was up, attending to their farms and businesses, and generally readying for the day. They weren’t the only ones. On the other side of town, the makeshift army base was alive with energy as well: on the tarmac, a Navy HV-22C sat, warming up for its flight, alongside two Air Force CV-22Bs and a C-130K. Not too far from them were their escorts: four heavily-armed Army RAH-66 Comanches. The crews of the aircraft were busy working on their equipment, readying for their imminent mission, with support personnel lending as much of a hand as they could. Meanwhile, in another building, a conference was taking place. On a conference table littered with documents, tablets, coffee and breakfast sandwiches, Shining, Spearhead and several other planning officers met. Joining them were Applejack, Bolt, Flash, Tempest and several senior enlisted personnel from the three involved units. Splitdown, representing the pilots, was also present; and finally, several others were piped in via teleconference, one of which was Lightning Dust. “Thanks for everyone’s attention,” Shining, leading the mission, began. “I know this isn’t going to be easy, but we’ll have little time to plan this once we arrive just outside of Canterlot, so we’d better do it now. We’re going to set up our entry into the city limits, as well as set up a distraction so our forces don’t meet heavy resistance. Fortunately, my executive officer’s been working on it.” He turned to look at Lightning’s image on screen. “Colonel?” Onscreen, Lightning gave a terse nod. “The 489th Attack Squadron is going to give us a hand on this one. Once we’re ready to roll, they’ll hit it with every drone they have, as well as a couple of F-22Cs for pinpoint strikes. We should be able to cause enough of a ruckus there for our forces to move in from the south. I’ll also have a couple of units stand by as CAS for our ground forces.” Shining looked at Flash. “I believe that’s your field, Captain.” “Yes, sir. Under cover, we’ll move into the southern neighborhoods, looking for survivors and engage any Octo ground forces. That should leave room for the SEALs and a small group of combat medics to meet up with the Resistance brass, which is located here, in downtown.” He pointed on an old map of Canterlot. “We know they’re concentrated in the three central-most subway stations, so with luck we should be able to lend a hand quickly.” “No,” Applejack cut in. “I don’t think that’s the right call.” Spearhead looked at her. “Is there a reason you think that, Commander?” The blonde looked back at him. “People are people regardless of nationality, race, whatever; culture aside, they have three main concerns, one of which is the safety of their home and hearth. While the subway stations might serve as a unified base and whatnot for the Resistance, I have a feeling we won’t find them there.” “I’ll have to agree with that assessment,” Tempest added. “Every place we have been to, we’ve had to practically force people to evacuate their homes. In a disaster, sure, they’ll leave, but when it comes to fighting tooth and nail against invaders, well, old habits die hard, and humanity’s had those habits since sticks and stones.” “Additionally, looking at these satellite images,” Applejack said, “there’s something about the eastern residential areas that the Octos haven’t touched. Granted, they have a heavy amount of infrastructure there, but there’s not much activity. I think there’s something there, protecting them.” “Like what?” one of the other officers spoke. But Fluttershy figured it out instantly. “CHS! That’s brilliant!” Spearhead looked at her. “Care to fill us in, Major?” “With all due respect, Colonel, I’m not sure everyone in the room is cleared for that,” Shining said. “Commander, would you run it past the base S-2 and see what they can come up with for us?” “Already thinking along those lines, sir,” Applejack answered. “In any case, once we link up with the Resistance, then we can work on coming up with a plan to clear out Canterlot while Chrysalis here does her dirty work.” That was Chrysalis’ cue. “As I said, I already have personnel in town, staying clear of both the Octos and the Resistance. They’ve already been doing some scouting, but once we’re in town we can start doing what we do best: sabotage, planting bombs, all that good asymmetrical warfare stuff.” She looked at Shining. “Once we’re given the word, we can pop the party favors.” “Fair enough. What then?” Applejack smiled. “Then we do what we do best…and those sons of bitches are going to pay.” “Okay, finish up everything you need and get ready to roll,” Shining said. “I want us to be airborne no later than 0615 hours, got that?” Immediately after the meeting was over, Applejack went and paid a visit to the base S-2 officer. While he hadn’t been able to attend the meeting due to other issues, he had already been briefed somewhat on what was going on. Even still, the naval officer’s question came out of left field for him. “Uh, sure I can do that for you, Commander,” the intelligence officer told her, “but this is a little out of my league. I don’t have those kinds of assets available to me.” “I know. I’m asking you to get a hold of Lt. Col. Dust at the FAR Group on the Mountain,” Applejack explained. “You’re an intelligence officer, Captain, and you can probably explain what we need better than I can. She’ll do the rest.” He looked at her skeptically. “This is going to take some time, you know.” “No it won’t. She’s got the authority to clear everything and get it as fast as possible – but I need you to work with her on that. Clear the decks for us and get me that information, got it? I need it before we have boots on deck.” “I’ll do my best, ma’am,” he told her. He then turned to the soldiers under his command. “Okay, you heard the lady! Start digging up this info! I want it all and I want it now! Get moving, people!” Finally the moment came and Applejack, carrying all her gear and walking towards her aircraft, found Fluttershy waiting for her. “AJ, do you have a moment?” Applejack sighed. “Really not the time for this, Major,” she chided. “As the medical officer on this mission, I’m making it the time,” Fluttershy told her with a frown. Her countenance then softened as she asked, “Are you ready for this? Ready to go home?” “When I left Sweet Apple Acres, I never looked back and home’s been where I put my seabag,” Applejack responded. “But I get what you mean. Are you ready?” “I’m not sure. I mean, the last time I saw the place Flash and I lived in was the day before, when Zephyr came by to try to borrow a few hundred from us for his latest crackpot plan.” Her face contorted into a frown of sorrow. “I mean, my brother was a lazyass and always had his head in the clouds, but I hope he made it out okay.” Applejack placed a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I’m sure she did.” Fluttershy nodded, then asked, “Do you…um…still have your ‘abilities’?” “No. I thought I did – at least I thought they came back when I was in Rome when I met up with the Queen – but no, I probably was imagining that. You?” “Mine vanished shortly after Sunset left.” “I suspect that happened to all of us. That’s part of the reason I started lifting weights; I mean, I’ve always been stronger than the average girl, but when you’re one of the first female SEALS, merely being ‘stronger than the average girl’ isn’t going to cut it. So I’m a mass of muscles now – I think I have more muscles than your husband.” Fluttershy grinned. “Don’t tell Flash that – he’ll be jealous.” A thought then crossed her mind. “Speaking of which, do you have someone?” “What’s with the question and answer session? We need to get in the air.” “Sorry, I’m just…well, I want things to be back as they were,” Fluttershy told her. “We were friends once, AJ. I’d like that again.” “Well…yes, I’m actually engaged,” Applejack admitted. She then reached under her shirt and withdrew an engagement ring attached to her dogtag chain. “Wildstyle and I hit it off, and I absolutely love him.” “That’s great! When’s the wedding?” In the distance, Applejack noted as Chrysalis waved to her, a sign that they needed to wrap up their impromptu conversation and report to their stations. “There’s never going to be one,” she said sadly. As she walked away, she added, “He died six years ago while we were fighting ISIS.” As she approached the Osprey, Chrysalis looked at her. “You okay, Jackie?” “Yeah. Was just reminded about my fiancé,” she said to her friend. “I told you about what happened to him, right?” “No, but we’ve got a flight ahead of us and I’m willing to listen,” the older woman told her. “That’s what friends are for, you know.” “Thanks, Chryssie.” Chrysalis merely gave a silent grin as she gestured towards their aircraft. Meanwhile, Fluttershy jogged over to the C-130, where her unit was. She heard a voice call out, “Think fast!” and barely managed to catch the pack thrown at her in time. “Seriously, Major, you’ve got to think faster,” Bolt laughed. “I should make you ride on the outside of the plane for that, Lieutenant,” was Fluttershy’s semi-humorous response. “Well, that would be awkward. In any case, hope you kissed your husband goodbye before you got on the plane.” “Did that before we left our place,” Fluttershy responded. “He complained about PDA in uniform and fraternization, but I told him I’d let it slide as long as he made a habit of it.” “Don’t you mean ‘Don’t make a habit of it’?” An impish smile came to Fluttershy’s lips. “I know what I said.” Bolt nodded with approval. “Gotcha.” SOMEWHERE OVER SOUTHWESTERN KANSAS 210802SJUL30: Seated towards the frontmost of the aircraft, three women had as much of a private chat as they could, given the environs and the other people on the aircraft. Given that Shining rode in the C-130 in order to talk to Fluttershy and Flash, it left Chrysalis, Tempest and Applejack to their own devices. “I’m sorry to hear about that,” the spymaster said once Applejack had finished her tragic tale. “It’s never easy losing loved ones. Though I’m surprised you didn’t tell me about it earlier.” “It’s not something I like to remind myself about,” Applejack told her. “My parents’ deaths are far enough in the past that it doesn’t bother me as much, but Wildstyle’s? Still a little too close to the bone, if you get what I mean.” “What about you, Temp?” Tempest grinned. “Haven’t found anyone who’s tied me down yet. Not for lack of trying, anyway.” At this point, Splitdown called back from the cockpit, “Hey, hate to break up your impromptu Ladies Night, but we have Ponyville S-2 on the line for you, Jackie. We’re getting an encrypted broadcast now, if you want to take a look at it.” Applejack got up from her seat and popped into the spare seat in the cockpit, where an open terminal sat. She then sat down at the console, turning on the screen. “It’s encrypted, so it’s going to take a few seconds to go back and forth like an old radio,” he told her. “They’re using the callsign Orchard. Ours is Calico Four. Everyone else is set for the standard ones.” “Thanks,” she said, slipping on the headset. The noise filters on the headset kicked in, decreasing the cacophony in the cockpit. “Orchard, this is Calico Four. You got something for me? Over.” “Calico Four, this is Orchard. We got you loud and clear, over.” “Okay, gimme what you have, over.” “Roger that. Standby for S-2 Actual.” There was a pause and a different voice came online. “Commander? This is Cpt. Digdeep. We got that information you wanted, and I have no idea how you came up with it, but you were completely correct, over.” She gave herself a congratulatory smile. I knew it. “Thanks for confirming the info, over.” “Not a problem, Calico Four. Also, Orchard Actual has informed us of what’s going down, so we’ll be on standby at all hours until further notice. Best of luck and good hunting, over.” “Thanks for the help, Captain. Calico Four, over and out.” She looked at Splitdown. “Can you put me in touch with the C-130? I have some info I have to pass to the Colonel. Also, if there’s a way for you, Chrysalis and Temp to listen in, you’re going to want this info, Splitdown.” Splitdown looked at his copilot to indicate that he needed to take over. “Sure thing; let me dig up two more headsets for your folks and we can get this conversation underway. Callsign for the C-130 is Blackcat Seven.” “Roger that,” Applejack said, while waiting for everyone else to be patched in. FIREBASE APPLE CORNERS, COLORADO 210837TJUL30: The aircraft group soared over Hunts Peak, the farthest north anyone was allowed to travel without permission, before making their descent to the landing strip, once a part of US Route 285, but now the main landing strip for Firebase Apple Corners. A few miles south of the Canterlot city limits, Apple Corners had been a sleepy bedroom suburb for the state capitol, and where most of the rurally-inclined folks of Canterlot County resided. Now, however, it was the last stop before the huge terra nullius that lay between the former city limits and the southernmost ruins of what had once been Canterlot. The huge cargo aircraft touched down on the ground and landed with ease, rolling along a quarter of a mile before coming to a crawl in the heavy rain, following the aircraft directors as they ushered it towards the other craft present. Elsewhere, the Comanches pulled away, headed towards a different location on the sprawling tarmac. Finally, the two Ospreys came to a landing, alighting vertically like great birds coming towards a roost. As Applejack looked out the window, she saw how much things had changed from when she’d last been here. Makeshift buildings and various structures were on either side of the facility, covering a wide swath of what had once been relatively empty roadway cut into the mountain pass between Apple Corners proper and Canterlot. As she stepped off the Osprey, she could see the lettering painted onto the newly-built terminal building: WELCOME TO FIREBASE APPLE CORNERS with Pomum Ligni Quod Est Fortis in smaller type beneath it. “‘Strong as an Apple Tree’,” Tempest quoted as she stepped off behind her. “Wasn’t aware you knew Latin, Temp,” Applejack told her. “I learned once back in high school because I was a total nerd back then,” she admitted with a shrug. “Kept it up because it generally screws with people.” “Well, home sweet home,” Applejack commented, gesturing towards everything. “My family’s farm is what Apple Corners is named after. Though I don’t know if I’ll want to visit.” “Then you should go home, see if there’s something still there, assuming that’s still your family’s farm.” Applejack turned to see Chrysalis as she stepped off the plane. “Oh, you can bet your bucks it is, unless it’s been declared part of the DMZ. Apples don’t give up the land unless there’s no choice.” “Then what are you waiting for? Family’s important – they deserve to see you again.” “I haven’t spoken to any of them in ages,” she admitted. “I dunno. I left home on bad terms with my family and stopped speaking to them over a decade ago when my grandmother died. My brother called me an ungrateful cunt who couldn’t bother to come home to see the woman that had raised us after our parents died, and…. Well, I never answered the letter, and nothing’s been said since.” “Then it’s even more important that you do so,” Chrysalis said jabbing a finger on Applejack’s chest. “Go see your Grandma’s grave – I’m sure that’s bothering you. Don’t let way late become too late. This is your chance to make things right, so don’t blow it, Jackie. Trust me, you don’t want the guilt on your shoulders” “Hey, while we’re at it, I can see if your brother’s single,” Tempest added. Chrysalis merely gave the blonde a look that said, See? Applejack gave her friend and subordinate a glare and Tempest laughed. “Like you wouldn’t say the same thing if the situation was reversed.” Meanwhile, as Fluttershy and the others stepped off the C-130 and onto the asphalt, Fluttershy looked around. “Never thought I’d find myself here again,” she said to herself. Bolt joined her. “Home sweet home for you?” Fluttershy shook her head. “Not for me. Flash and I went to the Cloudsdale U., and stayed in the area. But this is someone’s home.” She pointed into the distance. “Cmdr. Apple’s family home is just a few miles south of here.” “Think she’ll go home?” “I don’t see why she wouldn’t; family has always been important to the Apples,” she said wistfully. “Well, you should go with her, then. If you two are old friends, her family would probably enjoy seeing you again as well,” Bolt suggested. “But if you go, I wouldn’t recommend leaving your husband behind.” “Why’s that?” “Because he’s got a hot ass and I’m sorely tempted,” Bolt said with a wink. “I suspect that one lieutenant was thinking the same thing.” “No, Temp has the hots for my brother.” Both turned to see Applejack walking towards them. “Well, I remember when I had a thing for him,” Fluttershy admitted with a slight blush. “Too bad it didn’t work out.” She then saw her husband approaching and added, “Not giving you up though, even if you were the runner up.” “Gee, thanks,” he drawled. “Well, if he’s that good looking, can I come along?” Bolt asked. “No, I’ll need some of you to stay here and actually prepare for the operation.” Shining approached the group. “Jackie, I don’t mind you and Fluttershy attending to some unfinished business here – I’ll probably be doing that myself – but I need those who aren’t local to do the immediate heavy lifting. That means both you and Lt. Shadow will be busy, Lt. Bolt.” “Yes, sir, can do,” Bolt replied. “Jackie, Chryssie told me about your family situation,” he told her. “I can’t order you to go see them, but given that I lost everything myself….” “I’ll go, sir,” Applejack told him. “You’re all probably right that I need to. First, though, we need to check if I can get some wheels for the ride.” “I think I can arrange that,” he said with an affable smile. The operation got everything set for the next day, stowing everything in preparation for what was to come; after that, Shining gave the troops downtime, with orders that liberty would end at 2359 the following day. That gave Applejack enough time to secure a vehicle from the motor pool, as well as to give Shining information as to where they would be in case anything changed. Finally, in the early afternoon, Fluttershy, Applejack and Flash got in and went southbound, off of the base. What they saw surprised them. Driving, Flash commented, “This road wasn’t here before.” “Yeah, I spoke with the light colonel in charge of the base – turns out that they couldn’t keep 285 shut down forever, so they redirected it through the old Rhubarb and Carrot family farms before it goes back north. Ended up having to cut through the mountain, but it is what it is. In fact, they turned the old Carrot family house into a public relations center, so that the base can work with the townsfolk and vice versa. According to Col. Range, it’s worked out pretty well.” “Townsfolk?” Flash asked. “The old Carrot House? Golden Harvest’s old place?” Fluttershy asked. “Yeah. Apparently, the house was abandoned, so you know what that means.” She grunted. “Goldie and I never got along real well, but at least she and her family didn’t deserve it.” They passed a regional vehicle security stop and chatted for a few seconds with the soldiers before continuing on their drive. “Seems so long ago that we used to live just thirty minutes to the north of all this,” Flash said. “Almost feels like a different life – like I never lived any of this.” “When’d you become a poet, Flash?” “I was a musician, AJ, remember? Poetry is in my soul.” He cracked a smile. “Maybe when this is all over, I’ll get out of the Army, open up a music store and be that cool old man who can rock a guitar harder than Purple Haze.” “You presume we’ll live that long,” Applejack told him, “and you also presume kids know what 1960s music sounds like nowadays.” She pointed to the sign. “Well, here we are. You ready to do this?” “That’s what I should be asking you,” Fluttershy told her friend. “Point a gun at my head, shout something in Arabic and threaten to rape and/or kill me,” Applejack muttered. “That would be easier to deal with than this.” Eventually, they reached the town of Apple Corners, proper. Except, it wasn’t a small town anymore, but instead a small city. “When did this grow up?” Applejack wondered. “This is the sort of thing I’ve had to see over the past five years,” Fluttershy told her. “No offense, AJ, but while you were overseas doing what you do, I had to watch the nation melt down from the inside. Places like Ponyville are ghosts of themselves, and the cities are wastelands. Meanwhile, new towns have sprung up – life goes on and people can’t live as refugees in tents forever.” Flash nodded. “Yeah. Not that it matters much anymore but I’ve heard they moved the Canterlot County seat to Leadville shortly after Decimation and the state capitol is now Pueblo. They probably would’ve moved it to Denver, if it was still around.” “What happened to Denver?” Applejack asked, not having heard anything about it. “An Octo ship actually crash-landed there in the middle of town. Since they didn’t want us to capture it, they blew it up – and Denver along with it,” he said in disgust. “No one made it out of there alive, and where it used to be is nothing more than a crater now.” Eventually, so lost for directions due to the city that had (to them) literally popped up out of nowhere, they were reduced to using GPS via the maps function on Flash’s phone. After a few more minutes, they found their bearing and ended up driving onto the grounds of Sweet Apple Acres, the address of which was no longer 3447 County Road 57, but 100 Founding Family Road. As they pulled up, they noted a paved parking lot and a whole bunch of other trucks. “There’s…a lot of vehicles here,” Fluttershy mused. “Did we arrive during a party?” “Yeah, sure more than I ever expected to see here,” Applejack commented, only for Fluttershy to get her attention, tapping her on the shoulder. “No, look,” Fluttershy told the blonde. “Farmhands.” Applejack looked in shock. “But that’s…that’s impossible! We never had that kind of money; that’s why Granny had to take the day job at CHS, so we could pay the mortgage on the place! That’s why we had to have friends and family over all the time to help us take care of the orchards, because we barely had anything after burying Ma and Pa!” “I think you’re going to find that a lot of things have changed since you were last here,” Flash told her as they all got out of the vehicle. The door to the house then swung open, and a gravelly voice said, “Ah, sorry – didn’t know Ah had a meetin’ with Col. Range t’day. Now what can Ah do fer y—” The voice gulped and said, “Applejack?” Applejack flinched, then with a look of fear on her visage, she turned to look at the person who had just spoken to her. “Hi, Mac,” she said in a soft voice. Fluttershy and Flash looked at the man as well, seeing how different Macintosh Apple had become. The years had changed him much. Dressed in a red flannel shirt, blue jeans and wearing a stained baseball cap, he looked at the trio with deep green eyes, poking out from sandy blonde hair occasionally threaded with lines of gray. His face looked worn and aged, the look of a man who had known farm work all of his life, and from the neatly-trimmed beard he had, adulthood had given him a refined layer. But he looked at the blonde standing there in the camouflage, wondering if it was a dream. “Yeah,” Applejack said softly. “It’s me.” A trigger went off and he immediately burst forward, taking her in a huge bear hug and bawling; a second later, so was she. Their words devolved into incoherent blubbering, but Fluttershy swore she heard the words “I’m sorry” come from either person at one point or another. She wiped her own eyes and smiled, happy for this moment. “Long time coming?” Flash said, blinking and wondering where the sand in his eyes had suddenly come from. “Too long,” she said as she leaned against him. The house looked different, much different than what Applejack recalled. Maybe it had been so long, or maybe the passing of time allowed Macintosh to put his imprint on the house, but she recalled the old place looking more homespun and less IKEA. Still, some signs remained: Granny’s collection of old souvenir plates. Her mother’s valuable collection of Pocket Dragons. Her father’s hunting rifles, mounted on the wall, though they looked as though they never saw any use. “Army gave me a couple o’ surplus M4s in case o’ trouble,” the man admitted, then looked at her. “So, all grown up an’ in th’ Army?” “Navy,” Applejack clarified. “I’m a Navy SEAL, one of the first women SEALs. I’m also an officer.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Looks like y’ done good fer yerself. An’ Ah remember Fluttershy,” he said to the aforementioned woman. “Hi, Mac,” Fluttershy said, hugging him. “Actually, I’m in the Army – Medical Corps.” “Which one o’ them y’ with?” Macintosh asked Flash, offering his hand. “An’ Ah remember ya – y’ used t’ date Sunset, right?” “Well, officially I’m here as part of my own unit in the mission,” he replied, shaking the other man’s hand. “But as for personally? Fluttershy and I have been married for seven years.” “Well, looks like you’ve done well for yourself too, Mac,” Applejack said. It was then that he realized…. “What happened t’ yer voice?” “Long story, bro, long story. Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” “Nothing much t’ say, really,” Macintosh replied as he stroked his beard in thought. “You left, Ah took over th’ farm when Granny passed away, Bloom graduated from college—” “Where is she?” Applejack asked. “I know out of all of us, she was the one who didn’t want the farm life most of all, but….” “—got married, an’ had two kids, an’ after this all started and th’ town started buildin’ up, people picked me t’ be the new mayor o’ Apple Corners. Ah do that more’n th’ farm nowdays, but fortunately the wife helped t’ figure that whole mess out,” Macintosh finished, as if he had never stopped. “You’re married, Mac?” Fluttershy asked. “Eyup, an’ you know her, too,” he said, as they heard a car pull into the parking lot. “In fact, here she comes.” Walking in the door was a woman not much younger than Mac, with coffee-brown skin, soft violet eyes and short white-and-blue hair. She was in a business suit and at the moment she was taking off her heels by the front door. “Mac, honey, we need to talk about the farm’s cider press. Old Man Doodle wants to raise a complaint again and he’s talking about going to the County over you because you own the farm and so ‘abuse of mayoral authority’, yadda yadda yadda.” She sighed. “And I thought I was the only one around here who was overdramatic in performance.” She then looked up. “Oh, I see you’re already talking to the Army.” Macintosh smiled. “Not what y’ think, honey, not what y’ think.” It was then that Applejack got her first look at her sister-in-law… …Trixie Lulamoon. “And so after college, I realized I really wasn’t good enough to do my magic act professionally, as much as I wanted to – believe me, it was a sobering reality check. I mean, I still perform on holidays and special occasions, but otherwise, not really. So I decided to go into law instead, and I’m much better at that – it certainly pays the bills, in any case,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, one day I get a call from my aunt Cheerilee, who tells me about a potential client, the grandson of one of her co-workers that had recently passed away. Being a CHS grad myself, I should’ve put two and two together, but I was more focused on the ‘new business’ part and less on the ‘do I know him?’ part. So I’m thinking, ‘Great, some dork who probably screwed things up worse after using one of those pre-made legal form websites’. So when this absolute hunk walks in the door and has these…eyes!...that are just…wow, and I spend the rest of the meeting literally trying not to reach over the table and kiss him!” Macintosh laughed his ass off. “Meanwhile, Ah’m too busy tryin’ t’ save the farm t’ notice the gal across th’ table from me, makin’ googly eyes.” He put his arm around her and smiled. “Fortunately fer me, we hadta put a lot o’ time together, an’ Ah eventually got the hint, as well as realizin’ she’d been in th’ same grade as y’all.” “Hey, I didn’t bill you for those hours!” Trixie told him. “Just through t’ dates,” he said with a smile. “Which, you, as a gentleman, insisted on!” She kissed him on the cheek, then continued, looking at Applejack. “So technically I run the farm now, and it’s a fairly profitable business. As for our personal lives, well, that’s been absolutely, well…magical, pun intended,” she said with a wink. “We have two lovely children: Toffee Apple, and Golden Star. They’re the sweetest little kids, AJ. I hope you get the chance to meet them. They could certainly use more family in their life.” “Honey….” Macintosh started. “No. Knowing you, you didn’t say anything, did you? Your sister is home for the first time in a dozen years, and you haven’t told her.” She sighed. “Macintosh, I love you more than words can say, and I am thrilled and proud to be your wife. But that means I know the good and the bad about you. And the way you shut down whenever there’s bad news?” “What are you trying to say, Trixie?” Applejack asked. She was still trying to wrap her mind around how the egomaniac she knew back in high school now being well-adjusted and her sister-in-law. “She’s gone! She’s gone, okay? She’s gone an’ it’s mah fault!” Macintosh shouted, catching everyone else off-guard. Looking into his sister’s eyes, he said, “After ya left, Bloom…she done got her degree in engineerin’, but by that time, Granny was gone, an’ well, she was an adult. We fought a lot. An’ when th’ Decimation occurred, she yelled at me fer bein a coward. Maybe Ah was, but mah focus was on savin’ th’ farm, not t’ mention that Ah was still more than a mite sore at her fer what she did t’ Sunset, so Ah told her t’ get out. She did – an’ Ah haven’t seen her since in th’ past five years.” “So you’re saying…?” “Our children were born after we lost her,” Trixie replied. “At least they’ll know one of their aunts.” Applejack stood up from the table. “Excuse me….” she said in a sick tone. “I have to….” She immediately ran out of the house. Fluttershy looked at the grieving man and his supportive wife, then to her own husband. “I’m going after her,” the woman announced as she followed her friend out the door. “I’ll hold the fort,” Flash told her retreating form. Applejack stood in a rose garden that faced the orchard. Nearly a separate plot on the grounds, this one was tended year-round, and cared for just as much as the apple trees were. After all, roses and apples come from the same family – and those that are here loved them both, Applejack looked at the Apple Family Graveyard. Generations of her family had been buried here, dating back from Admiral Apple, the man who had moved to America after years at sea under the nation of his homeland. He’d settled here in the then-American frontier, anglicized his name to “Apple”, married a gal and started a family whose name was as American as apple pie. And I’ve been the first to return to the other family trade, one we’d forgotten, Applejack thought to herself. The life of a Sailor, born to battle. She sat down in front of the newest graves: that of Buttercup and Bright Mac Apple, and next to them, Granny Smith. There was also a blank one; Applejack knew who that one belonged to as well. “Ah don’t know whut t’ say,” she began, sitting down in front of the graves and using her natural voice for the first time in a while. “Ah had t’ leave. Ah probably shouldn’t’ve. Ah know that this all falls on me – it’s mah fault. Ah chased away Sunset when she needed me. Ah ran away when mah family needed me. An’ now, mah baby sister’s dead, b’cause Ah wasn’t here t’ talk sense inta her. “Ah just wanna say: Ah’m sorry fer failin’ ya. Ah wuz a damn liar an’ selfish, an’ now Ah’ve lost jest about everyone Ah love. Ah don’t know how t’ make it right, save that Ah’m followin’ Flutters. Somehow, Sunset’s still alive an’ out there an’ needs us, even with all this. An’ Ah need t’ find her. Mah last sister left.” She reached over and hugged her grandmother’s tombstone. “You were right, Granny. Sunset was family, even if she wasn’t an Apple. An’ Ah ruined that. An’ now Ah have t’ make it right.” “They know.” Applejack turned to see her friend standing there. “They know you’re trying to make this right.” “I…lost both my sisters, my grandmothers, my parents. I lost everything. I have a brother, a sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew,” the naval officer said, switching back to her daily speech. “I don’t want to lose anything else anymore, Flutters.” Fluttershy offered her a hand. “You haven’t lost me.” Applejack smiled. “And I appreciate that. But tomorrow’s going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Are you ready?” Fluttershy shook her head. “Going into battle? No, not the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” “Losing a patient?” “Very hard, but not that either,” Fluttershy said. “No, the hardest thing I’d ever done was to look inside and see the kind of person that drove Sunset away – the person I’d become then and didn’t like. The person I’ve spent years trying not to be. And I hope when we see her again – really see her – that she knows I didn’t mean to be that person.” “Yeah,” Applejack admitted in a sad tone. “I know what you mean. I gave up on myself. Took Wild to bring me back from the brink, and when I lost him, I went straight back to the edge, because it was the only thing that made me feel alive. But since I came across you again, I’ve realized something: I’m lying to myself by being there, even though I want to be. It wasn’t what I should be doing.” “And now?” Applejack felt something on her cheek and as she wiped at it, she hadn’t even realized she was crying. “Time to be honest with myself. And maybe then I can forgive myself for the woman I’ve become.” Applejack and Fluttershy hugged, holding each other for the longest time. After a few minutes, the two released each other. “So what now?” Fluttershy asked. Applejack grinned. “I’m going to go in the house and bake the biggest apple pie I can. Need to flex them old Apple muscles, you know.” Fluttershy giggled. “I want the first slice.” The two women laughed away their pain into the night, and for the first time in a while, green and orange reached towards the sky. > Inside You, Forever Preaching > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRIPYAT, UKRAINE 212113BJUL30: Night descended on hell. Seated underneath the rusting ruins of the Ferris Wheel, Vytrachena Syhareta burned off the rest of his cigarette, then flicked it away. He knew he wasn’t supposed to smoke after dark – a sergeant had once told him the light of a smoke could be seen from miles away by people, much less the zalupa that were the Octos – but to be honest, he didn’t really care much. They had already ruined his life to begin with. He had been a writer, working on his local newspaper the day Decimation came. The day when the aliens invaded and the so-called vaunted militaries of the West and the East crumpled like paper. Neither Washington, Moscow or Beijing was going to get the world out of this one, and unsurprisingly, when the world had started to gather its wits about them, 90% of humanity was dead. Amongst that was his sweet Kvitka, his beautiful flower, whose face he would never see again. He still held onto the ring he was going to use to propose to her, that he wore around his neck. And since then, sure, he’d spent time with other women – he knew Zlata stayed with him only because she was afraid of being alone, pathetic thing that she was – he could never forget the woman that he truly loved, even after all this time. At least Zlata was pregnant with his child, he mused grimly, fishing another cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. He guessed she figured that now that he was going to be a father, he would stay with her. She was probably right, but only because the government had put a priority on better housing for soldiers with families, and if he were to leave her, he would probably have to move back into the barracks. Not that that would be any better, not here in hell, anyway. There was a time, fifty years ago, when this town had been important. And then Russian stupidity had doomed hundreds of lives and caused untold damage because those bastards couldn’t run a nuclear power plant to save their lives. The plant had been buried in concrete and steel, and the town, a radioactive hell, had been evacuated. International observers had been assigned here to make sure “it would never happen again” and in time, everyone forgot about Chernobyl. Then Decimation came, and everyone ran for their lives. Now, people were living in the crumbling remains of Pripyat, not giving two shits about radioactivity – after all, the Japanese did okay after the Americans bombed the hell out of them nearly a century ago, right? Never mind the fact that Chernobyl was still within its concrete tomb, a dragon slumbering until disturbed and the world would suffer once again. People would die once again and this time there wouldn’t be anyone to give a damn, because the world was too busy fighting for its life while aliens were busy trying to kill everyone. He took a puff from his cigarette and groaned; he needed a drink right now, but the still was broken and Arkhitektor, that bastard, insisted that they couldn’t fix it until replacement parts came from Kiev. Which was bullshit, he knew, because Kiev was a smoking crater. He knew; he’d been one of the refugees from there before he’d been drafted by the Ukrainian military, such as it was. He was tapped in the shoulder and turned to see a flask held out to him. “Here, drink before I decide to finish this damn thing off myself.” Syhareta turned to see his old friend, Tsynizm, holding it out for him. Tsynizm had already been in the military when Syhareta had been drafted, and the two had become fast friends, sharing drinks, smokes, even a prostitute once. Syhareta, however, drew the line at sharing his girl with his friend, though; some things went just a little too far. He took a swig, then handed it back. “This is good shit. Where’d you get it?” Tsynizm laughed. “Mayor’s daughter. She’s a saucy little thing. Spent some time with her and she gave me this from the mayor’s private stash.” “Mayor’s daughter? He finds out you’re fucking her, he’s going to cut off your dick.” Tsynizm laughed all the more. “He’ll go after the Colonel, first, I’ll tell you that – the Colonel’s fucking his wife!” The two men laughed at that, then sat down as Syhareta gave his friend a cigarette. Tsynizm took a drag and said, “Vytra, my friend, you need to go. We’re all dead here. No one’s going to notice you deserted – no one cares.” The look in Tsynizm’s face was bleak. “If the aliens don’t kill us, being here will. You’re going to be a father soon. There’s no life for a child here. Take your wife and go.” “Tsycha, where the fuck am I going to go?” “Why not Germany? You told me once you spoke some German.” Syhareta took another swig from his friend’s flask. “That’s assuming Germany is still standing. Maybe the NATO bastards would welcome someone like me, but that’s assuming anything’s left. You remember what the Major said – even the Americans have fallen. And if they’ve shit their beds, I can guarantee Berlin’s a smoking fuckhole at this point.” Tsynizm ran a hand through the blue curls on top of his head. “I’m just looking out for you. Trust me, I’m thinking about it, too.” “Oh? What, Mayor’s daughter thinks that because you dicked her that you’re going to stay with her for life? I know you, my friend. Moment you get bored of her, you’ll find some other beauty with big tits and a wicked smile.” “Maybe,” he said, nodding. “Or maybe I will stay with her. I stay long enough, might get me some points with Daddy and might be a way up the promotion ladder. Only way to make sure I stay alive.” “You’re a cynical bastard, you know that?” “My mother didn’t name me for nothing, you know. What about you? Thought about what you’re going to do when this is all over?” Syhareta stared into the darkness for a long time, listening to the crickets in the distance. Somehow only the insects had survived the nuclear hellhole this place had become and though animals had long since returned to this place, they still gave Pripyat a wide berth. Maybe they were smarter than the humans that had returned, he mused darkly. “Don’t know. I don’t love Zlata; I only hooked up with her because she was stupid enough to spread her legs for me. But now, with her pregnant, she’s all I have left. I don’t love her at all – but I probably should.” He finished off his cigarette and flicked the butt away again. “Isn’t that a laugh? I’m going to be a father soon and I really couldn’t care less.” “Oh, you’ll care enough if she gives birth to a girl. Then you’ll be the father and I’m sure you won’t let her end up like—” The bray of a wolf sounded in the distance, and was immediately cut off with a yelp. “What the fuck was that?” both men said as they went for their rifles. They stared into the darkness, pointing their guns and waiting for something. After a few seconds, there was no response. “Hopefully it was nothing,” Syhareta said, unconvinced. “Yeah, but I’d better call it in, just in case,” Tsynizm stated, reaching on his belt for his radio. “The major will have our asses if we don’t.” Bringing it to his head, he clicked the button and began. “Base, Patrol 1. We think we may have fo—” Tsynizm never finished his sentence as a blast of white cut through the air and hit him straight in the head. His head, hand and the radio exploded in a spray of blood, bone, flesh and plastic, his body wobbling unsteadily as impulsive motions occurred. What was left of him took three steps towards Syhareta before it fell to the ground, spraying blood all over the remaining soldier. Syhareta screamed in panic, falling to the ground and scooting away from his now-dead friend. It was the one thing that saved his life. Three beams cut through the air where he’d been a second before, and one more towards the ground a second after that. Knowing he was now in danger, he ran behind the safety of the ticket booth; hopefully he would be shielded from the alien rays long enough to get away. Panicked, he gasped out in deep breaths, his mind caught up in fear. His mind flitted between shards of terror as he felt icy cold fear pour down his back. He immediately thought of Zlata, and the fact that he would never get to play with her body again; or the child she carried – he would never see it be born. His child would grow up without a father and would either turn out to be a bastard like him or the kind of woman that dallied with same. No more beams came, and he risked taking a peek on the side of the building. There, standing a distance away like robotic beasts of the damned, were a group of Octos. They looked armed and from their posture, it was clear that they had either thought they’d killed him or he mattered so little that he was no longer a priority. He watched as one of them walked over to Tsynizm’s corpse and poked it a couple of times with their energy rods before wandering away from it, uttering a watery, unnatural sound that must have been its native language. If they were here, there had to be more. And given they had killed his friend without so much as a thought, they would easily do the same to the civilians. He forced down his panic and picked up his radio, readying to call. That was when he heard the first of the explosions in the distance. He turned to look towards the ruined city and the great concrete sarcophagus and it was alight with fire and detonation. The aliens had begun their attack on the city and the power plant. He then realized if they destroyed the sarcophagus, the radiation released would be worse than the initial disaster. Everyone around would be killed instantly, and who knew how much else. And this time there would be nothing to stop them. He tightened his grip around his gun, a weathered and battered AK-47 that had already been obsolete back well before Decimation. Now it was all that the Ukrainian Ground Forces had and needless to say, it would likely be no match for alien armor. Still, he had to do something, as the screams and smoke in the distance began to sound and the fires rose higher. He would die, but at least he would die defending the Fatherland. Taking his final breath of life, he stood up, screamed and aimed… …only to find the aliens dead and standing amongst them, holding a staff that seemed to be made from pure electricity, was a strange figure. Dressed in what looked to be some bizarre body armor based on medieval plate. The whole thing looked like a mix of carbon-fiber, light metals and various other things. But the strangest thing was the cape, which the figure wore as if it was some sort of American superhero. He looked at the figure blankly, along with the dead aliens at its feet. Whatever had happened, the newcomer had destroyed the aliens quickly and without mercy. The hooded stranger looked at him and spoke: “Ти поранений?” It was a woman’s voice, soft and cultured, so much so that he couldn’t put together the juxtaposition of brutal lioness with the gentle voice. He stared at her and she spoke again: “Ти в шоці? Вам потрібна медична допомога?” He then realized she was speaking to him. “I…no. I’m fine.” The stranger nodded. “Good,” she said. “We have work to do.” She flexed her left hand and the energy staff went away as if it were nothing. “What…what are….” “A friend.” Her words were now terse. “We need to get to the center of town before it’s too late. If they destroy the sarcophagus, they’ll have easy access to the solar station.” He’d forgotten about that: there was an automated solar power plant that had been built back in 2018. It had been fully automated since 2022, and even now after Decimation had served as a vital energy source for Ukraine. “Why would they want…?” “They don’t,” the woman told him as she started running towards the town. Despite her armor and trailing cape, she moved as if it weighed nothing at all, and he found himself struggling to keep up with her. “They plan to use the destruction of the sarcophagus to kill everyone here, then destroy the solar station. Without anyone present, there won’t be anyone to repair the solar plant.” Magenta eyes opened in shock. “What? But the people here are refugees! They know nothing about repairing complex machinery!” “The Octos aren’t inclined to care,” the stranger said, as they reached the center of town. Around them, buildings were burning, people were screaming and bodies lay still on the ground. Above them, an Octo ship opened fire on the sarcophagus, burning it with great beams of energy. “Here’s where we make our stand,” she told him. He looked around – they were out in the wide open, with no cover around them. “Are you crazy?” “Yes. But I’m getting better every day,” was her only response. She looked at him once more, her face unreadable behind the silvery mask. “I want you to evacuate everyone you can – leave the aliens to me and fire only if you must. Is that your weapon?” “Um…yes?” “Worthless antique.” She ripped it out of his hand, throwing it into one of the burning buildings. She then somehow magically called something from nowhere, putting it in his hands. “Use this instead.” He looked at the weapon she’d given him. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before: a sleek and futuristic bullpup rifle, its black-and-cobalt color scheme looked more like something the Americans would use than anything else. Hell, if he had to guess, it looked like something out of Japanese science fiction. He almost wondered if he could point it at the enemy and fry them in laser fire, just as they had done to his friend. She pointed. “Go. Save your people,” she ordered. He turned to do so, then turned back and looked one final time at his benefactor. “Who are you?” He swore he could feel the woman smile, despite the fact that he couldn’t see it. “Королева ножів.” She then rushed towards the nuclear power plant, moving even faster than she had before. He in turn moved towards the survivors. He had his family to save, and then after that, the town. Coming to a stop before the toppled brick wall that had once been the perimeter of the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, she looked around. Groups of Octos were fighting a pitched battle against the Ukrainian soldiers that had been stationed here to prevent the breach. The Octos were on the verge of victory, both on the ground and in the sky, where their starship floated, unopposed, firing down on the steel structure. Amazingly it had withstood the plasmafire, but it couldn’t hold out forever. The Queen looked at the odds and decided it was time to change them. “Computer,” she told her combat gear, “Music selection, if you please.” {{QUERY: MUSIC REQUEST?}} “Something…classical,” she said, as she called blazing fire to her hands. A second later, a fanciful revolver that looked more like a work of art than a weapon appeared in her left hand, and she pointed it. The trigger was pulled and as it did, music began to pulse in her ears, thunderous guitars and chunky bass that accompanied the blast of burning starfire that slammed into the side of the alien ship. A second later, it cored through it, sending the alien ship listing towards the Earth, smoking from the massive hole that had been torn through its hull. All eyes – human and Octo – looked at her. She stepped forward, into battle. “Hey you, hey you, Devil’s little sister – Listening to your twisted transistor Hold it between your legs Turn it up, turn it up The wind is coming through, Can’t get enough” The Queen rushed towards her opponents, who immediately began firing on her. Bolts of white-hot plasma began to tear through the air towards her, yet somehow missing. As she got closer to them, she leapt into the air, spinning like a ballerina of war as she began to glow with that same fiery energy again. “A lonely life, where no one understands you But don’t give up, because the music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do!” A storm of fireknives boiled away from her, rushing towards the enemy like warbirds in flight. Each knife that hit an Octo incinerated the alien on contact, and within less than a second, a dozen of them simply ceased to exist, felled by the literal power of the sun. The Queen landed amongst the remaining members of the first group, and with a scream, summoned two knives of burning violet energy… …then vanished. “Because the music do And then it’s reaching Inside you, forever preaching, ‘Fuck you too!’ Your screams will whisper Hang on you Twisted transistor” A figure of smoke zigzagged between the remaining Octos in the first group. In each case the figure coalesced into the figure of the Queen, slamming her opponent with explosive power before turning into smoke and going after the next one. Time after time the Octos fell to her blades, and by the time her spell stopped, most of the first group had been removed. She turned and looked at the shellshocked soldiers and screamed at them, “БОТИ ДО ОСТАТОРИ!” One by one they moved into action, stirred by the incredible figure before them. A second group of Octos began to move toward them, firing at them, filling the area with sulfuric white plasma bolts as the two sides traded fire. “Hey you, hey you, finally you get it The world – it can eat you if you let it And as your tears fall on Your breast, your dress Vibrations coming through – You’re in a mess” With a cold fury, the Queen summoned an amethyst bow made of the same dark energies as her long knives. Without a concern, she immediately drew back the energy bow and fired. “A lonely life, where no one understands you But don’t give up, because the music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do! Music do!” Several blasts of energy slammed into the Octos, anchoring them in place, tractor beams made of spellfire. Held in place by the energy tethers, the aliens could only move slowly, unable to fire and or do much more than scream in rage. Sensing the advantage, the Ukrainian soldiers fired in their would-be assailants, cutting them down with countless rounds of depleted uranium. The Queen turned and tethered a second group of them, deciding to go after them herself. She bolted towards them, calling forth her staff, lightning tracing a path up and down the length of the electric-blue staff. She tore into the center of them, sending pieces of aliens flying, attacking without any mercy whatsoever. “Because the music do And then it’s reaching Inside you, forever preaching, ‘Fuck you too!’ Your screams will whisper Hang on you Twisted transistor” Within minutes, the tide of the battle had turned, and the invading Octo forces suddenly found themselves repulsed by both the Queen and the rejuvenated Ukrainian Ground Forces. They would hold the line, prevent the destruction of Chernobyl and save the lives of the refugees hiding in the ghostly buildings of Pripyat. Stories had been told about the Zone of Alienation, from the truth to the fanciful, from poachers to stalkers. And now, it would tell of heroes, as the defenders fought to the last, men and women bringing their might against the Octos. “ZLATA!” Syhareta raced towards the building that she and he had been living in. It was on fire and there were several aliens around it, trying to burn the structure to its foundations as if it were all one great campfire. Without even thinking twice, he raised his new rifle and fired. The weapon complied without so much as even bucking from recoil, sending out a lick of gunfire. Across the yawning distance, an Octo went down in bloody chunks, cut down by the gunfire. Emboldened, he continued to fire, not giving them even the slightest chance to return fire. As he reached the door, the flames had begun to climb to the second of three floors. “ZLATA!” he screamed. “WHERE ARE YOU?” “Vytra!” He heard the voice behind him and turned. Once, she had been this alluring sweet thing, with a perfectly fuckable body, smoky gray eyes and long gold-and-violet hair. Now, her hair had been cut short, and her belly was swollen, preventing him from getting between her thighs anytime soon. She had never looked lovelier to him than in that moment. She moved forward, holding him, crying on his chest. He held her close, stroking her hair as he slung his new rifle around his shoulder. Strangely enough, even though it didn’t have a sling, it adhered to his back without so much as moving. “I thought…I thought I’d never see you again!” she sobbed. “I thought you’d leave me behind or you’d died or….” “No,” he told her, and within his heart, he knew it. Despite everything, he knew he would never leave her. “You are my wife,” he told her gently, lifting her face up so his magenta eyes looked into her gray ones. “The mother of my child. I would not leave my beloved behind.” That made her cry all the more, and he held her closer for it. The aliens tried to take everything from him – from both the Ukraine and from him personally. He would see to it, thanks to his mysterious benefactor, that they would be very mistaken. The Queen moved amongst friend and foe, acting with calculated efficiency. To her fellow humans, she offered words of encouragement, strength and support. To her enemies, she offered the slings and arrows of war, each aimed with a cold cruelty towards those who would slaughter mankind. Each wave of Octos that came was met with a fierce response, and as the hours wore down, the waves became less and less, spaced out more, and though a brave defender or two fell occasionally, it paled beside the numbers of the alien dead that littered the grounds of the derelict power plant. Finally, the first rays of light began to peek over the horizon and the alien starship, having been heavily damaged earlier, returned to the scene, and as one, the aliens began to vanish, clearly teleported within the vessel. Finally, the large ship moved away as the scream of Russian Air Force Su-57 stealth fighters sounded in the air above. Though the fighters immediately gave chase, they could not keep up as the alien ship breached the atmosphere, heading into the inky darkness of space. A few moments later, additional sounds could be heard: the sound of helicopters, as forces from the Russian and Belarusian militaries moved in to relieve the beleaguered Ukrainian forces. But the reinforcements had arrived at a time when they were no longer needed, as the valiant defenders threw up cheers of victory and prayers for those lost in battle. In the end, the bodies of both victors and assailants would have to be buried, the dead honored and plans made to continue to protect Chernobyl. Now more than ever, its defense had to be carefully maintained, now that they knew the risks and the potential for disaster. Walking through the fields of the dead, checking to see which of the downed somehow managed to remain alive, she methodically executed any that did, while she called for medical attention for the wounded humans that had miraculously lived through the battle. Many of them would have injuries that would be lifelong, but at least they would live to see another day. As she finished up and the sun rose in full, her armor glittered in the light, giving all the impression of an angel amongst them – an angel of war, having come down from the heavens to punish the wicked and save the faithful. Several people rushed up to her and gave her thanks, chittering along in Ukrainian, Russian and even Turkish in one case. She gave them all her thanks in their native languages, much to the surprise of those present, answering their questions patiently and carefully. No, she wasn’t Russian – or American or Chinese or anything like that. Yes, she was using magic. Yes, she was human. Yes, she was single – but she was planning to stay that way. No, she couldn’t stay; others needed her help as well and she had world to defend. Finally, as she began to wind up, she encountered Syhareta. He had a fierce, protective look in his eyes, and the woman holding onto his arm was likely the reason why. “I see you survived,” the Queen told him. “I did. I presume you’ll be wanting this back?” he told her, offering the gun. She looked at him, then shook her head. “No. The Ukraine needs brave soldiers like you, effective ones.” She then glanced at the woman, adding, “ones that know what to fight for. That weapon will help. In fact….” She moved her right hand as if performing a slight-of-hand trick and produced a glass disc, handing it to him. “What is this?” “It’s a 5D Memory Crystal,” she told him. “They were experimental a decade ago – hopefully someone should be able to read it now. The designs for that gun are on that disc. It will help in the battles to come.” “Should I give up my gun as well?” She shook her head again. “No – that one is yours. It will only be yours. The disc will create others.” “I see,” Syhareta said, confused but taking the disc nonetheless. “I will do what I can. You have my word.” “I know,” she said, then turned. “It is time for me to go. Others need me as well.” The Queen started walking away, and dissolved into motes of light, and was gone by her third step. “An angel,” Zatla said to Syhareta. “She had to be an angel sent to help us.” Syhareta looked at the crystal in his hand and his promise to the Queen. He would not fail her. “We need to go.” “Go?” “This is no place for our child, amongst this radioactive hell. This is no place for you. Our world is in peril and we have been given a chance to save it. We need to take this information to the government. They’ll know what to do.” Zlata looked at him. “I go wherever you go,” she told him. He put his arm around her, holding her close. In a matter of hours, his world had completely changed. As the days wound on, how much more would change? APPLE CORNERS, COLORADO 220921TJUL30: “Roger that, Colonel. We’ll be back by 1200.” Applejack closed her phone, ending the call. She looked at Flash and Fluttershy. “Change in plans: Col. Armor wants us back after breakfast. We need to move up the mission timetable.” “Why?” Fluttershy asked. “There was an attack in the Ukraine yesterday – the aliens tried to hit Chernobyl.” A plate shattered in the background, and the three military personnel turned to look at Trixie, who was at the stove, making breakfast for everyone and having dropped the plate in shock. “Chernobyl?” the woman said with shock. “Isn’t that the place where that nuclear accident happened?” Applejack nodded. “Apparently the Octos were trying to set whatever off again. But they were stopped…by the Queen.” Macintosh, who had went over to help his wife clean up the mess, looked at his sister. “I get the feeling we’re not supposed to hear this.” “It’ll be public soon enough,” Applejack told him. “Given where the attack happened, it’s not going to stay quiet, and given that the Queen stopped it, there’s no way that the Ukrainian government can keep it quiet. If they don’t say something, the Russians will – they owe her.” Flash looked at Applejack, his face an unreadable jumble of emotions. No doubt he wondered if his former girlfriend was behind the mask and armor, leading a one-woman war against the aliens. “Do you think it’s her?” “I don’t know,” Applejack told him. “But I have to believe. If it is her…I can’t let her do this alone.” “We can’t let her do this alone,” Fluttershy reminded her friend. “Yeah.” Applejack rose from her chair, pushing away from the table. At the moment, she was dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans. She would have to head back upstairs and change into the all-familiar clothing she spent most of her time in – her NAVPATs. Throwing herself into the grind once more, as befitting her life’s calling. She just hoped there was a light at the end of the tunnel…a dying light, preferably. > REVERB ARROWSMITH > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIREBASE APPLE CORNERS, COLORADO 240308TJUL30: In a makeshift prefab building being used as a command center, several officers leaned over a computer system. Looking over computer screens and various maps and charts, the officers waited for a silent signal. Finally, from a console towards the back of the room, a communications specialist called out, “Col. Range? Col. Armor? We have Sublevel J online – they say that we are go.” Lt. Col. Long Range, a raspberry-haired man with tired yellow eyes, gave Shining a haggard look. “Looks like it’s finally a go, Colonel.” Shining nodded and put a headset on. “Splash 6 to Spacebase. Do you read? Over.” “This is Spacebase,” Lightning’s voice said on the other end. “We have go,” Shining spoke. “Execute operation.” “Roger that, sir,” Lighting replied. “Operation REVERB ARROWSMITH is a go. Wait one.” A pause while there was conversation on the other end. “Air cover is scrambling and will be readying attack in two hours. Repeat, aircraft are scrambling now and will engage in two hours.” “Roger that. Standby for further instructions, Spacebase.” He took off his headset and looked at Range. “Give all units the word: we’re on the clock.” APPLE CORNERS, COLORADO 230431TJUL30: Rubbing his eyes, Toffee Apple yawned as he tried to stay awake. He wanted to go to sleep, but his mom and dad had woken him up, saying that it was more important than anything. Not really understanding, the five-year-old boy got out of bed and followed his parents into their bedroom, and then onto the balcony that was on the other side of their bedroom. That was the first sign that something was really important: neither of his parents ever let him come onto the balcony without supervision and they themselves only went out there on special occasions. The moment he did, his father hoisted him onto his shoulders. “You awake, champ?” his father asked him gently. Toffee nodded, yawning, “Yeah.” He then looked around and saw his mother, watching the sky, holding his sister Golden Star. At three years old, she really didn’t understand what was going on. For that matter, he didn’t, either. His mother looked at him and smiled. “Something magical is about to happen,” she told him. At that, he perked up. His mom knew magic, and when she said something magical was about to happen, she was never wrong. A few seconds later, the air erupted with loud screams. Aircraft streaked by, more than he had ever seen in his young life, all headed towards the old city. They moved far faster than anything he had seen at the Army base before, all of them moving in unison and with purpose. “Wow!” he chirped, amazed. Even Golden, asleep as she was, woke up and stared at the sky, her golden-yellow hair covering her pink eyes. “What is that?” “That,” his father said, “is the military. They’re heading off today to save Canterlot – to beat the aliens for once and for all.” His mother looked up at him, then at his sister. “And do you know what’s even more special about that?” she said as she leaned next to them, the family coming together. “No,” Toffee admitted, knowing his mother would tell him soon enough. It was probably magic, he guessed. “The main soldier in that fight’s mah sister – your aunt Applejack,” his father said with a soft voice that sounded both proud and a little worried at the same time. “She’s goin’ in t’ save the day.” MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 230502TJUL30: Several JLTVs paused in the shattered road amongst the ruins of Mars Junction, Colorado. The suburb of Canterlot immediately to the southwest of the city limits, it had been a working-class town with single-family homes, factories and the first hints of farming equipment and rural life before it turned into exurban lands southwards. At least, that was how it had been. Now, it was nothing but destroyed roads and burnt-out husks of human life that had once been there. A rusted metal sign, still legible and still standing after all this time, pointed the way towards Camp Everfree, “The Woodland Vacation Getaway Only 82 Miles East of Canterlot!” Getting out of the lead vehicle, Applejack looked at the old sign and wondered if the place was still standing, or if Gloriosa Daisy and her brother were still alive. She’d flirted with Timber Spruce a bit, but nothing had come of it, largely due to the distance between where they lived. Now, that was a moot point. To the north, muffled thumps roiled the air. From here they didn’t sound like much, but up close, she knew that was where their air support was throwing everything they had in order to make an opening for them. Spending time in nostalgia wasn’t something she could afford. The other senior officers, chiefs and NCOs got out of the vehicles as well, moving over to where she was. “Okay,” Applejack said to Chrysalis, “show’s all yours. Where’s your folks?” Chrysalis, currently wearing black cargo pants, combat boots and a light black military jacket over odd teal-colored body armor, looked through binoculars. She had her rifle slung over her shoulder and peeking out of her jacket, Applejack noted her friend wore a chest pistol harness and kept her sidearm there. “Should be here any moment.” She then lowered the binoculars, fished in a pocket for a small object and pulled it out. “A kazoo?” one of Flash’s sergeants asked, looking at the spymaster as if she were mad as she blew a quick tune on it. “Yup. We found that for some reason, the Octos don’t seem to pay much attention to it,” she pointed out. “Maybe it sounds like something from their homeworld, or maybe they just can’t hear it. We don’t try to abuse it much, because if we broadcast on that frequency, well, I’m sure they can probably pick that up.” A second later, a matching kazoo sound flitted through the air, a mated set of notes to Chrysalis’ own. A few seconds after that, there was the scraping of concrete together before several people, dressed similarly to Chrysalis, came out of the ruined buildings. All of them had the same easy-yet-wary stance that Applejack and her SEALs did, and these folks were similarly scruffy, which meant they were either likely former operators or had been through similar training. The lead was a burly man whose eyes had a gruff, drill sergeant look to it. If Applejack had to guess, she would have said he was former Marines. He had a familiar face under his dark-cyan and red hair, which was long and stringy. His eyes, though a striking shade of violet, were hard and scanning for the first sign of trouble. Beside him was a short Asian girl that didn’t look more than a teenager, and from the way she was gripping the man’s arm, might very well have been. “Who’s the kid?” Chrysalis asked him. “Who the fuck cares, you old hag?!” the teen spat back. “Charming. Again, who is she, CH?” The man had the grace to scratch the back of his head and look embarrassed. “Wouldn’t believe me if I told you, Chrys,” he demurred. “It’s a long story.” “Oh, I like stories,” she said, folding her arms. “I especially like the stories where my subordinates pick up little girls because they get lonely at night. I mean, yes, a lot of laws on the books pretty much went out the window after Decimation, but could you at least have tried to find someone who looked eighteen?” “CH”’s eyes went wide in shock. The girl flipped him off. “Sit and rotate, bitch!” she snarled. “Then again, you might like it.” “People shouldn’t have stopped spanking their kids,” the woman said coolly. Applejack sighed. “Look, as entertaining as this is, we’re all in the open and sitting ducks if the Octos decide to take potshots at us, so can we shitcan the chatter and get moving?” One of the other Changelings, a stout Asiatic woman with her hair in braids and carrying a heavy machine gun, nodded. Looking at the girl, she said in an accented voice, “Behave yourself, little one.” The teen turned to face the woman. “But Yona….” she whined. “No. That is our leader and it is unbecoming of you to treat her like such.” “Fine,” she groaned and stormed off. Another woman, a Hispanic one with a wiry look, said to “CH”, “I’ll take care of it. She usually listens to me when she gets like this.” “Thank you, Smolder,” the man told her. Smolder gave one even, silent look at Chrysalis before heading off after the kid. Chrysalis looked at everyone. “Okay, we’ll hold off on introductions until we’re safe. Where’re we going?” “About a five-minute drive down to the Mars Junction subway station. I already have two of our folks by the old underground parking structure that leads to the subsurface accessway so you can get your JLTVs down there. Most of the Blue Line is intact, though we’ve never pushed our way completely down to Canterlot itself.” He started walking in the direction they needed to head, with shattered streets and destroyed cars and buildings ahead. “We need to get a move on – the airstrikes aren’t going to last forever and knowing the Octos, they’ll probably have cuttlefish in the air soon. All it takes is one of those fuckers to spot us and we’re doomed.” “Cuttlefish?” Fluttershy asked. “What serves as their strike fighter assets; they look like that, so that’s what we call them,” Flash told her. “We don’t know if they’re another breed of Octos or something else – they look like they’re alive – but they’re very lethal, explode completely when taken down and we’ve never successfully captured one to study.” “Look, can we drop the high school reunion shit and get going?” Tempest drawled. “Man’s right – sitting here is a death sentence.” No more arguments to be had, the group saddled back up on their JLTVs and moved forward, following the small group towards the Mars Junction station of the Canterlot Metropolitan Rail system. CMR had once spread not only through Canterlot, but through a good part of the surrounding suburbs as well and was probably their best bet of getting into the city undetected. It was a slow and steady move through Mars Junction, looking through the burnt-out ruins of the town as they made their way to the subway. One of the things that had caught the attention of Applejack, Fluttershy and Flash was the nearly faded bus stop poster for a film from five years ago: The Obese Blue Line, which was supposed to be a buddy cop film featuring comedians Fats Gogo…and Pinkie Pie. “Oh, hey, I remember that movie,” one of the soldiers in Flash’s group stated. “That’s the one about the fat-ass mall cop who wanted to be a real cop and the female detective that had to put up with his shit, right?” “Yeah, I remember,” said another. “Honestly, it was a shitty film. They had Pinkie play the straight man in that one and she’s definitely not the straight man type. Should’ve been the other way around or something.” “Personally, I thought she was better in Trainwreck and Trainwreck, Too!” one of the SEALs piped up. “Much better for her.” “Wasn’t that the one where she played the ditzy granddaughter of a railroad owner who was trying to save his business or something like that?” one of the Changelings asked. “Yeah. She had some really great lines and it was an old-fashioned slapstick film, which she’s great at.” The SEAL shrugged. “Eh, she’s probably dead now like so many of those Hollywood types. Fuckin’ world we live in, man.” “Secure the chatter, everyone,” Applejack called out, more out of irritation than actual concern. “We don’t know what’s around and we don’t want to get caught in a firefight right now. So keep your fucking lips zipped until we get underground, am I clear?” The rest of the way was in silence, with standard movement. Flash’s troops were immediately deployed to the tops of the buildings to make sure they wouldn’t be ambushed, while the SEALs spread out to hunt for potential enemies. Fluttershy looked at Applejack, forgetting about the latter’s order. “Do you think she’s right about Pinkie?” “Honestly, Flutters? Part of me – well, most of me, really, doesn’t give a fuck,” Applejack admitted. “She was our friend, AJ.” “Yeah, she was also the one that had the nastiest words for Sunset – that should’ve been a sign where she was going in her career,” the SEAL replied. “Maybe she’s different now if she’s still alive – hell, we all are, truth be told. But…whether I think she’s a bitch or not, we’ll probably have to find her someday, so, yes, I hope she’s still kicking somewhere on this mudball.” There was a click of noise, and the group stopped immediately. Applejack brought her gun to the ready and signaled for Fluttershy to go head back to the safety of the vehicles. She then used hand signals for Tempest to check it out. Tempest nodded her head and moved forward, silent and immediately disappeared behind a couple of buildings. A few seconds later, she came back out with her rifle lowered. “Okay, we’re all clear,” she called back. “Oh?” Applejack called in reply. “Yeah, Jackie – just a couple of wild dogs fucking. Scattered as soon as they saw me. Though, I don’t even think I’ve seen a Chihuahua get down and funky with a Labrador before today.” “Didn’t need to know that shit, Temp.” “All a part of the service, Jackie. All a part of the service.” Finally, they heard explosions in the distance, and a call over the radio. “Sierra Six Delta, Splash 5. Come in, over.” Applejack pulled out her helmet mic and queued the line. “This is Sierra Six Delta Actual. What’s up?” “We’re starting to pull away – our air assets are taking heavy casualties and are running Bingo and Winchester. We also have bandits in the air and have heavier resistance than expected. If you guys aren’t in a safe spot, you need to move into one soonest, over.” Applejack looked forward towards the intersection of Monarch Avenue and Lemontwist Boulevard; a block further was the Mars Junction station. “We’re almost there. How much more can you give us? Over.” A new voice came over the line – Lightning Dust, all the way over at the Mountain: “Sierra Six Delta, this is Spacebase. Jackie, I don’t think I can spare more air assets. I’m losing a lot of birds up there right now and unless we want to start relying on Canadian assets or have the Air Force fly Gulf War-era aircraft, I’m going to have to pull them back to the barn!” “Do what you gotta do, Colonel,” she replied. “We’re about a block away, and we can hunker down for the night. Get a hold of the resistance and let them know to contact us.” “Roger that. Pulling them back now. Good hunting, Jackie. Spacebase, over.” “At this point, we’re going River City until further notice. Have them watch the comms, all. Sierra Six Delta, out.” Applejack cut the line, just to make her point. Going “River City” – reduced communications – meant that unless it was vitally important or to let them know that they’d failed in their mission, they would have to operate with complete radio silence. Until then, they were completely on their own, with no chance of backup or reinforcements, and it was either meet up with the resistance and succeed in their mission or fail horribly and end up as red smears on the crumbling flagstones of Canterlot. The latter really wasn’t Applejack’s idea of fun. Finally, the rumble of aircraft in the sky sounded as F-35As, F-22Cs, and even a few Marine F-22Bs blew past, heading back to base. More than one showed signs of damage and one was even heavily smoking and would likely not make it back intact. “Okay, that’s our cue – everyone get to position, now!” Applejack called out to the group as they made their way towards the station. Those on foot headed towards the main stairway down into the station, while a few of the Changelings present redirected the vehicles towards the access ramps, located at the underground parking structure just down the street. Applejack stayed topside, watching out for the eventual crossing of the enemy. Undoubtedly, one or two of the Octos would be chasing down the aircraft, hoping to put a few more of the birds out of business. Seconds later, a trio of cuttlefish-like creatures moved through the air at high speeds, not so much flying as swimming. Mostly a mottled brown in color, various parts of their bodies glowed with a greenish blue light that flickered, as if giving off some sort of energy radiation. One of them spat a white light towards the horizon and in the far-off distance an explosion could be heard. Then one of the cuttlefish stopped…and lowered down into Mars Junction. Immediately, those still on the surface hid behind whatever they could to avoid detection. To her personal disgust, Applejack took cover by a rusted and collapsed bus stop, which also had a copy of the The Obese Blue Line poster there and she found herself practically with Pinkie’s photocopied eyes on her. Stop staring at me, you Goddamn bitch, Applejack mentally seethed, and she wasn’t sure whether she meant the cuttlefish or her former friend. Applejack shifted slightly to get a look at Tempest, who hunkered down next to the ruins of a bus and had a clear shot at the cuttlefish. Given that it was about seventy feet in length, give or take, and about the size of an F-22C, the creature had been able to maneuver down into the middle of the intersection with nearly no problem at all. Strange W-shaped eyes looked around as if searching for prey, and the creature’s body seemed to hum with a sound that was both watery and vibrant, organic and yet mechanical at the same time. She could feel the creature looking in her direction. On the poster, she could feel Pinkie’s eyes boring into her as if challenging her to go out and take on the thing, a move that would be instant death. Maybe there was a time when Applejack would have done so, if only to join her fiancé in the afterlife. But she had a mission to do now, people were depending on her… …and she had still to make it up to Sunset. So she ignored her own imagination and the bale creature just feet away from her, waiting for her to make a move that would end in death. A second later, the other two cuttlefish soared ahead, headed back towards Canterlot. Apparently bored with playing with its prey or following some other imperative, the great creature lifted back up towards the sky and followed its brethren, headed back towards the ruined city. From where she was, Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. “That was a close one, AJ,” Flash told her. She turned and found that he’d been right next to her the whole time and she hadn’t even noticed. “Yeah, fucking tell me about it,” she admitted. “Everyone below decks now?” “Pretty much. I’m leaving a few of my folks out here to stand watch and make sure the Octos don’t drop in on us, but we should be pretty safe at this point. Plus, Flutters is setting up downstairs right now and I don’t want to get in her way.” “Oh really?” “Yeah. Remind me to tell you about the time I did that. My ears are still ringing from how much she chewed me out over that.” As the senior group of her medical NCOs surrounded her, Fluttershy gave a quick briefing: “We’ll use Platform Four for our makeshift hospital. We brought enough inflatable beds and portable medical equipment to support twenty beds, and we can go across the street and hit that old department store for sheets and such – there should still be enough, sealed in plastic bags after all these years, that should be sterile enough to act as privacy sheets.” “What about an OR, Major?” one of the sergeants asked. “Take apart everything you can in the trains on Platforms One and Three and see what we can do to use them to our advantage. Once we clear everything out, we can seal off two of the most intact cars and use that as an OR, with a third as an airlock space.” “That’s not going to be airtight, ma’am.” “We have sealing sprays and we’ll use the most intact cars for our needs – it will have to suffice,” she told him. “Any questions?” When her medics shook their heads, she then said, “Wait until dark and then move with your assigned partner. I expect you all to make it back alive and unharmed, because we need to stay that way to help those who aren’t or won’t be in the near future. Get to work, everyone. Dismissed.” As the group broke up, Fluttershy sighed and walked over to a group of crates. She needed to start the inventory to make sure that her plan was going to work. She had no idea how many people she was going to need to take care of, and everything was just estimates. “That was impressive, Flutters,” Bolt said as she walked up to her friend and superior officer. “Didn’t know you had it in you.” Fluttershy pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Neither did I, Boltie. Frankly, being in charge of this whole thing frightens me.” “I thought that SEAL friend of yours was in charge? After all, she’s a field officer and you’re just medical corps.” “Yes, but this is a dual humanitarian/combat operation, so when it comes to the former part, I have command,” Fluttershy noted. “AJ only has command in combat situations. More important, though, she’s used to that sort of thing. I’m not really the commanding type. And yes, before you comment, I know I oversaw the CSH, but it never felt like ‘command’ to me, if you get what I mean.” “Still, I think you’re doing a great job. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to set up my communications post and the folks I brought with me. Fortunately, because this station was the southern terminus for the CMR Blue Line, they have a backup operations room here and that should be perfect for my soldiers’ needs. Let me know if you need anything else.” “Will do.” Bolt gave her a pat on the shoulder and left the doctor to her work. Over on Platform Four, in the dusty, cobweb filled remains of the coffee shop, a different kind of briefing was being held. The Queen Bee held court with her Changelings and it was time for some overdue explanations. “So, CH,” Chrysalis said, currently seated reverse-style on a dusty chair and leaning over its back, “want to tell me about the kid?” “Can I get away with saying that being the older brother of the Vice President of the US has some privileges?” he commented. “CH…no, Pharynx, you could be fucking the queen of England and I wouldn’t give a fuck.” “Uh, doesn’t the UK have a king now? Queen passed away even before Decimation,” one of the Changelings cracked, only to be immediately cowed by a stare from Chrysalis. “I see you all think you somehow became the Diamond Dogs because I don’t have a direct hand in things anymore,” Chrysalis said in a venomous tone towards her subordinate. “Chrys…look, you got pulled away from us and sent to Langley for two years, and then at the Mountain for five. We’ve been running on our own in the field for seven years and if I can be honest? This isn’t the team you used to lead. Not anymore,” Pharynx commented. “Look, I remember when Tymbal retired and passed this group to me – I was her fucking protégée,” Chrysalis hissed. “We’re not like Rover and his Goddamn Diamond Dogs, doing whatever we want and hiding behind legal technicalities. Last time I checked, we were still the good guys, even if we’re a little too edgy to be squeaky clean. So don’t slip the fucking leash on me, got it?” “Yes and note that I still report to you,” he told her. “But for the past five years, we’ve been out there in the field, doing the dirtiest of dirty missions when special forces weren’t around. Remember, we were in Paris helping the evacuation there when the shit in Boston went down and Rover and his assholes fucked everything up. If I had my way, we’d hunt him and his traitorous assholes down and kill them for what they did to those innocent civilians. Yes, they rioted, but the response was not worth it – and I hold Nebbish responsible!” “Yes, and that’s probably why he offed himself in his office and why your kid brother is now Veep,” Chrysalis said. “But you’re skipping my point.” “No, I was getting to it. You obviously know Smolder and Silverstream, since you recruited them; and I introduced you to Sandbar when I recruited him from SWCC. But many of the folks you know are gone: Nyx, Idol Hooves, Brownie Bun, Flufflepuff, Coldfire – all of them. And I had to make do, so I picked up a few strays along the way.” He pointed to the woman from earlier. “Yona joined us after that disastrous mission in Mongolia. Found her when she escaped a burning building, naked as a jaybird and literally beat an Octo to death with its ray stick, then picked up an NSV off a Mongolian army half-track and started shooting like it was nothing.” Yona shrugged. “Learned from a soldier who taught me how to use one in return for a full weekend of fun. I said why not? The shooting turned out to be more entertaining than sleeping with him, anyway.” Pharynx laughed and continued. “Anyway, she’s a fucking genius when it comes to languages.” Yona shrugged. “It was profitable to be able to say more than just ‘fuck me’ in multiple languages,” she commented. “Besides, I prefer this job better.” “And what do you get out of this?” Chrysalis asked plainly. “When this is over, I want a ranch in the American Midwest,” Yona said. “I’ll raise cows, be a cowgirl and screw whoever I want because that won’t be my job.” “Always good to have motivation,” Chrysalis said sardonically. “Okay, who’s next?” He then pointed to a thin man with spiky blue hair. “Gallus here is probably one of the very last DGSE operatives left in the world. He says he hasn’t heard from his folks in ages, so he hooked up with us after Paris.” Gallus smiled and spoke in a French accent. “Always preferred America anyway. When this is all over, I want to retire somewhere in Montana with a stream and a log cabin and forget about all this shit.” He next pointed to the thin guy flipping a knife in his hand. He had a goth-like aura amongst him, and his long teal hair, similar in color to Chrysalis’ own, didn’t make things better. “That guy over there is Stygian. I recruited him a year ago in the ruins of New York. Said he used to be a mafia enforcer, until the Octos destroyed everything.” Without looking at any of them, Stygian commented, “I don’t expect to get some sort of reward or be the good guy after all this. I know what I used to do for a living and so do you. I just want to get back at the fuckers that killed my girl. A little payback, you know?” “And when this is all over?” Chrysalis looked at him. He looked back at her and she saw in his eyes the same barely controlled look that she’d seen in many of the Diamond Dogs. “Kill me, throw me in prison, or let me go – I don’t fucking care. My life was already over the day they killed my Diamond Rose.” A haunted look came over his face as he admitted, “She was the only light in my life.” Chrysalis then turned back to Pharynx. “So, lastly, what about the kid?” “Ocellus?” He shifted in his seat. “Ossy’s a special case, Chrys. We didn’t look for her – she came looking for us. Do you remember that mission we had in Cambodia at the start of the war?” Chrysalis nodded. “Yeah. Sombra wasn’t happy that we completely destroyed a priceless ancient relic of mankind, but the place was filled with the enemy – it was either dust Angkor Wat or lose Southeast Asia to the Octos.” “Yeah, well, after that shit, we took a break for a week in Phnom Penh. Always liked the place, or at least I did until some little shit came up and pickpocketed my wallet and my gun. We all went after her and it turned out it was a good thing, too – she did it because she was trying to report a hidden Octo base, and the local authorities weren’t listening to her because kid and street urchin. Fortunately, we got a hold of the Royal Cambodian Army and we managed to take it out before they could make a move. But afterwards, the kid didn’t have anywhere to go and no one to take care of her. “So we took her in. It was Idol that named her – Ocellus, after his mother, if I remember correctly. And it was Nyx that taught her English and such, though everyone’s pitched in. She’s part mascot, part team kid, and—” Chrysalis understood immediately. “Pharynx…she’s not Tealove.” “And I never said she was. Ossy…she’s not a replacement for my daughter, okay? Yes, you know I’m in all this shit past retirement because my wife and child didn’t make it out of Houston. But Ossy’s not a replacement. If anything, she’s my protégée, just like you were Tymbal’s.” “Tymbal recruited me from college when I was in my early twenties,” Chrysalis reminded him. “She didn’t find me on the streets of some Godforsaken backwater shithole. And like I said, we’re the good guys – we don’t go recruiting child soldiers.” Pharynx refused to back down. “Different times call for different measures, Chrys. Maybe it’s obscene by other standards, but other standards went out the door when ninety percent of the world’s population was killed in a matter of days. And she has nowhere else to go, no family. So better us than no one at all.” Chrysalis looked at him, and then at the kid, fiddling around with a tablet while Smolder stood over her. At first she thought the teen was screwing around with it, but then it became clear that she was studying. “I, uh, had my sister send me the current curriculum that her school uses,” Sandbar told Chrysalis. “Figured if she could learn that, we can eventually get her into a good school after the war’s over. By then, she can do whatever she wants, even if it isn’t in the Company.” “I see.” Chrysalis rubbed her chin in thought. “Do you love her, Pharynx?” “What?” “Simple question, simple answer: do you love her?” Pharynx looked at his boss. Finally, after a few minutes, he said, “A couple of times, when she’s slept next to me, she’s called me aupok.” Another pause. “That’s Khmer for father.” “Then after this operation, I expect to see you at the Mountain, to fill adoption papers for her, got it?” Chrysalis told him. “Because if you don’t…” The woman looked at the teen, who continued to engross herself with her learning. “…you’ll have given me a golden opportunity to get Shining to do something final, if you get what I mean.” “You wouldn’t.” “I would. And unlike you, I would also make her go to school and have a normal life. So make your choice: normal as you define it, or normal as everyone else does.” CANTERLOT, COLORADO 231339TJUL30: “I’m sorry, Scoots.” Sweetie Belle looked at her old friend. “I didn’t mean—” “I know you didn’t. And it’s water under the bridge. Look, with you and Bloom out of the picture, I need to be out there.” She got up from her chair. “I need to get some sleep, and I need to check on Grady.” “That’s just it! You keep talking about Grady, but he doesn’t love you, Scoots!” “Yes he does.” Scootaloo sighed. “Yeah, so okay, we’re not having hot, steamy, bedbreaking sex all the time, but he loves me.” A soft smile came over the girl’s face as she added, “We’re even going to get married once this is over.” “Why? So you can be in a loveless marriage? So you can spend the rest of your life with a guy who is never going to get you hot and bothered?” “And so what if he doesn’t? So fucking what? Not everything in life has to be about ‘oh, he’s great in bed, therefore I must put a ring on it!’ He’s sweet, he’s kind, he doesn’t beat or ignore me – doesn’t that count for anything?” Sweetie groaned at the old argument. “Scoots, please don’t make this about what happened to us after Sunset left.” Scootaloo raised her voice. “And why shouldn’t I? He was there for me when you two abandoned me! When my family threw me out and when Rainbow said she wanted nothing to do with me! Grady was there for me and if he wants to use me as his personal plaything or never touch me, then fine – he’s earned that much from me!” The two glared at one another for a few silent moments before Scootaloo wordlessly picked up her rifle and left Sweetie’s apartment. Sweetie stood there and looked helplessly at the door. She then felt a kick in her stomach. Reaching down to pat her stomach, the woman cooed, “Your aunt loves me, little one. We just have a past to get over. But she’ll love you and be there for you, too.” Unable to do anything else, Sweetie went down and sat by the radio. With Button working on the special project for Hera, and Bloom in the hospital for the next few days, she was going to be mostly manning the radio by herself for the moment. Since she couldn’t be out there in the field, it was the next best thing she could do for the cause. The radio clattered to life. “Olympus, this is Splash 6. Do you read? Over.” Sweetie immediately slipped on the headset and cued the system, then grabbed a pad and pen so she could write stuff down. “We read you, Splash 6. I see someone made a big impression with the Octos – that your handiwork?” “It was. We needed to insert a team and they’re inbound now. Some of my best people, over.” Sweetie wrote down the message, then thought about it for a second. “Splash 6, are we talking evacuation or freeing Canterlot?” “That’s going to be the call of my on-site field commander. Navy SEAL by the name of Lt. Cmdr. Applejack Apple. She’s one of the best there is and I trust her judgement completely. She’s bringing her SEALs as well as a group of regular Army troops and medics. She’ll be the one to decide the best course of action. I trust there will not be a problem with that?” Sweetie froze at the name, her jaw dropping. Applejack? A SEAL? And coming here? She remembered the last time she saw Applejack; it had been shortly after the truth had been revealed and their confessions about having driven away Sunset. She also remembered the bloody nose she got from Applejack and it had only been Rarity reluctantly standing up for her sister that had prevented the older girl from beating the shit out of her that day. And now she was coming back. And more dangerous than ever. Shaken, she said, “Uh, no, no problem, Splash 6. We’ll be sure to give her every courtesy. I need to let Zeus know. Olympus out.” She immediately tore off her headset and went to change into some clothing that still fit her – pretty soon she wasn’t going to be wearing anything other than maternity clothing anymore and already her normal outfits were too small for her. But she needed to make it over to where Button was, and then to go see Bloom. Someone, after all, had to tell them about the storm that was coming. A storm probably even more hazardous than the Octos. > Abomination > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CRADLE MOUNTAIN, TASMANIA 240246KJUL30: The snow was beautiful, admittedly. Seated on a rock, catching her breath and watching the steady fall of the powdery white as the winter weather blanketed all, the Queen of Knives took a moment of simple joy in the pure nature of Earth. After all, this world was her home. Maybe it hadn’t been, once upon a time, but that had long changed and now she was as much a part of things as those who had always lived here. She made a mental note to visit this place when summer visited the southern hemisphere; if it was beautiful now, it would probably be absolutely breathtaking during the warmer time of year. However, that peaceful, pristine visit would probably have to wait a while: unfortunately, the scars of war currently ravaged this place. A quarter kilometer down the mountain and in the valley below, loomed a crashed Other starship, still burning and ruining this pristine land with its wreckage. The Australian military, with apparently some assistance from the New Zealand armed forces, had expended quite a bit of effort to bring the massive vessel down. Even then, it had cost lives, countless souls that could never be replaced, and the Queen grieved for their loss even as she was glad they were able to bring the beast to heel. Above, fighting still took place in the air as Other cuttlefish and RAAF F-35A and RNZAF FA-50NZ fighters traded fire. While the ground forces of the ARA had not encountered much of a challenge, there were still potentially thousands of Other soldiers onboard that vessel, as standard operating procedure for the Others was to ground their ships and turn them into bases from which they could build successor ships to launch a continued fight from. So in the end, it would be a war of attrition and even if the good guys won the day here, there was still the greater conflict to consider. Who knew how many troops the Others had left, while humanity teetered at 800 million people, a tenth of what had existed five years ago, and even then, maybe a fraction of that were active military personnel. That galled the Queen more than anything: when she was a teenager, her life had been filled with malls, boys, and friends. People that age now were either in uniform or eking out a miserable existence. Still, she could enjoy the moment, just a few minutes with her helmet off and her breath crystalizing in the air. She couldn’t remember the last time she wore anything other than her battle armor, and even with all the adjustments, repairs and updates she’d made to it, it still felt more like she’d never taken it off. She longed for the day when she would just sit on the couch and luxuriate in normal clothing, but those times were long gone, so far in the past it almost felt like another person had done it instead of her. She heard a click behind her and on practiced habit, she crouched and spun at the same time, letting the energy beams from Other raysticks blast over her head and through her cloak. She chided herself for having turned off her suit’s LIDAR feed – a result of having removed her helmet – but there was no time to worry about that. Her hands going to her sides, she summoned black guns to her hand, the weapons appearing as if to be made from nothing but black smoke. Without aiming, she fired from her hips, hoping that her familiarity with her weapons would let her survive her own stupidity. Ebon blasts of energy tore away from her guns, slamming into the Others, dropping them as fast as she could. They returned fire, but not before she could dive behind a rock outcropping. As she did, she could hear the whistle of bullets fly by, and less than a second later, rounds from above hammered into the ground, followed a few seconds later by the telltale BRRRRRT of an autocannon. A second after that, the roar of an aircraft blasted above; either the pilot had seen her plight or had just chosen targets of opportunity. Either way, she had been saved by her own ill-timed relaxation. She couldn’t afford that again; too many people were counting on her to save the day. With a groan of resignation, she slipped on her helmet once more and pulled the cloak over it. Tapping a hidden button on her armor, she activated the hermetic seals, which would let her get back to work. The Others were still out there, still ceaselessly hammering Earth for reasons that were still unclear and known only to them. Likewise, she would in turn continue to assault them until they relented, because to do anything less would be to doom her adopted species. MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 240551TJUL30: Still holding onto her coffee mug as though it was a sacred talisman, a sleepy-eyed Fluttershy surveyed the two JLTVs and the equipment that was being brought onboard. She was bringing all but one of her most senior medics with her for the trip into Canterlot proper, and the one that remained behind would make sure that everything was ready to go for surgery and any other contingencies. “Are you sure you need to be the one to go, Major?” the sergeant being left behind asked. A grizzled first sergeant who had first enlisted way back during the 9/11 crisis, he’d even retired and came back to active duty after Decimation. Despite his gruff demeanor, he truly cared about both his patients and the soldiers under his charge and so Fluttershy had come to respect the man; the fact that he reminded her more than a bit of a rougher part of her father also helped, admittedly. So, when this mission was announced, he was a natural choice for second-in-command of the medical part of the mission, having chosen him over more senior warrant and commissioned officers. She nodded. “Yes, I do, Top. This is my hometown, and it turns out I know one of the militia leaders. If I can get them on our side, it will change things for the better.” “Yeah, well, you’d better take care of yourself, ma’am.” Top told her. “I really don’t want to have to patch up any of our boys and girls, and that goes double for you, got that?” “Don’t worry, I’ll be in good hands. For starters, we have a company of infantry here with us—” “Yeah, and I don’t trust that wet-behind-the-ears captain. No disrespect to him, ma’am, but he doesn’t look like the type that would keep an eye out for you.” You have no idea how wrong you are, Fluttershy thought. One of the conditions that Col. Spearhead had required of her and Flash was that while they were out here, no one was to know of their marital ties except for those already in the know. Fortunately, that was limited to Applejack, Tempest and Bolt. “Well,” Fluttershy commented, “if it makes you feel better, Cmdr. Apple is also a local and an old friend of mine. I’m sure she’ll keep me safe.” “Yeah, well, as wrong as I think it is for the Navy to pretend playing at being soldiers, I can’t argue that SEALs aren’t effective,” Top commented. “Still, Major, you’d better take care of yourself and my troops, got it?” “Got it, Top.” On the unused platform, Applejack, Tempest, Flash and their senior NCOs and chiefs went over the whole protective detail. “You don’t have a problem if I take lead on this, do you, Flash?” “You outrank me, AJ. Even if I do know about mass movements a little better than you do,” he snarked. Tempest tried not to laugh as she drank from her coffee cup. “Aww, Army guys are so cute when they try to act like they know what they’re doing, right, Shippy?” Chief Shipshape, having been former Army, opted to say nothing. “Seriously though, folks, all joking aside, we need to make sure that we’re working together. We don’t know the lay of the land, we don’t know what’s out there and we’re not entirely sure that the militia is on our side – and we damn well know that the Octos aren’t,” Applejack noted. “We have some of the data that was sent to us by the drones and spy satellites, but that’s not going to be enough.” She looked at another one of her troops. “Landrunner?” Landrunner, a bulky, swarthy woman who looked as though she could bench press an aircraft carrier, strode forward with a large map – a chart, in military parlance. “This is where we are,” she said, pointing to one part of the chart, “and the Blue Line runs through Southvale, Silverload, Bayriver and Terraceview neighborhoods, before meeting in Central Station, here. Based on the information that the militia themselves gave us, they’re using Central Station as one of the main refugee camps and an operating base.” “Furthermore,” one of Flash’s sergeants commented, “if we take control of Central, then we’ll have access to the Green Line, which is where the majority of the Octo infestation is. If they haven’t covered the underground parts, we may be able to catch them by surprise.” “Well, I’m more concerned about this part,” Applejack noted, tracing a finger along a part of the chart that headed eastwards. “The Red Line, which heads out to Easterbrook. Most of that is above ground, which means we’ll be sitting ducks.” “And why do we have to go to Easterbrook?” one of the sergeants noted. “Easterbrook is one of the vital points of the operation, but that’s not our job to handle,” Flash told his subordinate. “Basically, both teams will be meeting up with the militia to trade intel and figure out some plans, but then afterwards, while we’ll be busy escorting those who need to be evacuated to the safe zone here and working to try to deal with the Octo problem in town, the SEALs will be headed to Easterbrook.” “It’s a need-to-know situation,” Tempest added. “If the situation gets so dogfucked that we need help, then we’ll call you guys for backup, but chances are, if we get to that point, even backup might not save us. As it is, we’re already going to be relying on you to keep the majority of the Octos off our back.” “Any other questions?” Applejack asked. One of the SEALs raised her hand. “Obviously, we’ll follow you wherever you go, Commander, but I think we’d like to know what we’re getting into,” she voiced. “If the data we don’t have is recent, then how do we know how much things have changed?” “Don’t worry, we’re taking care of that right now,” Tempest told her. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 240603TJUL30: As they stepped out of Meadowglade Station, Chrysalis checked her black bandanna that she’d tied around her head to keep her hair in place. She probably should have cut it long ago, but when Shining had told her that he liked her long hair, she’d decided that it wasn’t going to see a hair salon anytime soon. She tapped her radio, signaling Bolt and the operations team on the other side. Unfortunately, that operations team now included Ocellus, who had not been happy in the least about being left behind. But while Chrysalis needed Pharynx out here in the field, she wasn’t about to risk the life of a child…even one as ingratiating and childish as Ocellus. So Chrysalis gave him an ultimatum: leave her behind for her safety, or…well, there really wasn’t an “or” involved, truth be told. Given that she was risking her own life out here when she would rather be back on the Mountain making babies with Shining, she wasn’t going to let Pharynx know the loss of a child. Even if she doesn’t appreciate it, Chrysalis had smirked. She remembered her teenage years, after all. She hadn’t been the ideal girl next door either. Out of the radio, she heard three quick bursts of static, indicating that Pharynx had moved his fireteam to the checkpoint. With that, she pushed all else out of her mind: right now, she was back in the field, back doing what she did best. Granted, she was typically used to going against human opponents – the Constitution did state that part about “all enemies, foreign or domestic”, after all – but when push came to shove, the Octos were as foreign as foreign got. She watched for Yona’s signal to cross the deserted, cracked street. Pharynx was right: the big Mongolian woman was built like a yak but was also surprisingly fast and nimble. If she wasn’t so dead set on retiring once the war was over, she might have made for a great leader of her own team within the Special Activities Division. And, of course, Chrysalis had no issues about Sandbar; even though he was SWCC rather than a SEAL, he was still a born and bred special operator and knew exactly how to get things done. Chrysalis moved over. “Okay, what have we got?” she asked as they moved into a broken storefront. “Just heard from CH’s group,” Sandbar replied. “They’re already three blocks away and what they’ve reported isn’t very good.” “We’re in the middle of a war – I’ve come to expect not very good as the standard mode for news.” There was a guttural bark of laughter from Yona. “Perhaps. But what they’re reporting is bad even by those terms.” She then handed Chrysalis the small combat tablet that was standard issue in the field. “This is a live feed from one of Dragonfire’s drones,” she commented, using Smolder’s codename. As the “twidget” – the electronic warfare specialist – in their group, Smolder was good at what she did. She had been the one that had introduced the use of drones into the Changeling’s operations and while the other SAD teams were not comfortable about it, Chrysalis saw the value of the change and ran with it. Chrysalis watched the video coming from the drones. “This is live?” she asked, just to doublecheck. “As true as my native Yakyakistan is colder than a whore’s morals,” she commented affably. “You call your hometown Yakyakistan?” Chrysalis filed a mental note to look it up in the CIA’s World Factbook database later; she hadn’t recalled any locale by that name. “No – that’s what we call the province. I don’t even think my village is large enough to have a name,” she drolled. “The town Pharynx found me in was one of the larger regional towns the army frequented.” Mentally shrugging, Chrysalis went back to the feed, finding it both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. The screen showed severely deformed humans that moved like apes. With their scrunched, rat-like faces, the bodies looked like a complete mockery of a human being; given that they wore no clothing, this went straight down to the biological morphology. What made it worse, however, was the fact that each of them looked like they’d been bathed in food dye, as their skin coloration looked nothing like what humans had. Granted, human hair coloration ran the gamut, but there was a difference between Chrysalis’ teal hair and the teal skin of the male creature currently rutting with the slightly smaller lavender-skinned female creature. “What the fuck are those things?” Chrysalis asked. “I’d be more worried about what they’re eating,” Yona pointed out. Chrysalis turned back to the video, then a second later narrowed her eyes in hatred. It was clear what they were eating and if so, in her mind they had just been turned from things to be curious about to creatures that needed to be put under at all costs. She cued her mic. “All Changelings, this is Queen Bee. I don’t know if you’ve seen the live feed—” “Merde – what the fuck are those things?” Gallus called over his line. A second later, the remainder of the Changelings called out their own comments of surprise. Chrysalis let the comments die down before she continued. “As I was saying, as of now, we are designating those things…” She mentally rifled through the CIA’s designation codebook for an unused phrasing, but couldn’t immediately recall, so she made one up. “…Extranormal Quadrupedal Guerillas.” Behind her, Yona sniggered. “That’s a horrible name.” “That’s a mouthful,” Smolder stated. “Sounds like some NASA bullshit. What about EQGs for short?” “You can call them Candy-Colored Murder Machines, for all I care. But you are to shoot on sight and make sure that they are very dead.” “Queen Bee, this is CH. We can easily move around them,” Pharynx suggested over his line. “We don’t have to waste ammo on them.” Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed. “No. We put the fuckers down and we do it hard. We don’t know what they’re capable of, and we don’t want them sneaking up on us from behind.” “Fine, but I don’t like it,” Pharynx stated. Chrysalis let her silence answer for her; instead, she changed channels. “Stationmaster, Queen Bee. You live there, Bolt? Over.” “Stationmaster Actual. I’m here. And before you ask, yes, we’re watching your feed – a few of my people are wincing at that. I take it you want us to pass this to the others before they head out? Over.” “Yes. They’re going to need the info. We’ll send more data after we find out whether they make good containers for depleted uranium, over.” “They’re still briefing. You Changelings about to do something stupid?” Despite the situation, the spymaster chuckled, then pointed towards an abandoned, crumbling building two blocks down. “Can’t let Jackie have all the fun. We’ll update you soon. Queen Bee, out.” As Yona and Sandbar began to move, Chrysalis switched back to the main Changeling channel. “Everyone, get topside – let’s see if raining rounds on our new finds will put a few holes in spots they don’t normally go.” “Okay, that’s it!” Applejack called out as the troops gathered around the two JLTVs. “From this point, we are River City unless necessary. Our job is to meet up with the militia at Central Station. I want a defensive ring around the two vehicles. The girls and I are going to take point, understood?” There were nods of assent and some murmurs, but no arguments otherwise. “Cpt. Sentry, can you watch the middle? Also, assign one of your best folks for rear.” “That works for me,” Flash added. “I’ve got it covered.” “Temp, send your team ahead to start scouting around. I know the Changelings went through earlier, but I want to make sure nothing’s moved into the area since.” Tempest nodded, signaling to her fireteam. “Okay, ladies, you heard the boss.” Applejack then turned to Fluttershy. “Your folks ready to roll?” “As much as they can be. Top will make sure everything’s good to go here.” “Okay, get in the car and let’s get going.” But the pink-haired woman shook her head. “No. If it’s all the same, I’d rather walk with you.” “Flutters, I really hate to break this to you, but this isn’t a Sunday afternoon stroll we’re going on. You’re not prepared for this kind of shit.” Applejack hooked a thumb over to the JLTV. “Get in the car.” “AJ…I think it’s best I go along with you. I’m…getting a feeling.” Applejack blinked. Every instinct she had told her to throw the doctor into the JLTV, strap her down with enough 550 cord to make sure she made for a bondage fetish convention. But at the same time, something from the back of her mind, something that had remained from the days when she was a teenager, told her to listen. Not just hear Fluttershy’s words, but listen. The blonde sighed. “Fine. You ride in the JLTV…but the moment you get that feeling again, let me know and we’ll stop so you can get out.” She then held a stern finger at her. “But the moment shit gets hot, you get back in and you don’t fucking argue, got me?” Fluttershy gave an awkward smile. “If you say so, Commander.” Applejack just grinned and shook her head in disbelief. “You’re not the same girl you used to be.” “Nope – that Fluttershy would’ve probably been too shy to speak up about it.” “Major!” One of Bolt’s soldiers came running up. “I’m glad I got you before you got going!” She handed a tablet to Fluttershy. “Look at this!” Fluttershy took the tablet and looked at it…and her mouth screwed tightly. Her eyes, however, revealed something going on. Wordlessly, she signaled to both Flash and Applejack. It only took Applejack a few seconds of watching the grisly scene to go from astonished to horrified to a cold, murderous anger. “Where’s the Changelings?” she asked the sergeant. “According to Agent Chrysalis, they’re planning to engage,” the sergeant replied. Fluttershy gasped and looked at Applejack. “Are you sure?” the naval officer asked, and Fluttershy nodded. Applejack sighed. “Fuck me ragged,” she grunted before calling out, “Okay, change in plans! All SEALs, get to the JLTVs! We’ve got a rescue to get to! Cpt. Sentry – move ahead on to the rendezvous without us and take the medics with you. Major, you’re with us!” She turned back to the sergeant. “Get a hold of Chrysalis and tell her we’re on the way to provide backup.” “Yes, ma’am!” he replied, double-timing back to where his unit was. “AJ….” Flash called out. He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. “The Major will be fine, Captain – I’ll make sure of it,” Applejack assured him as her forces started to get into position. “You just do what you’ve been assigned, and we’ll pull the Changelings’ asses out of the fire.” It was clear he didn’t like it, but he had to admit, there was a war going on. “Fine. Okay, you heard the Commander – Company, we’re moving out! We’ve got a job to do!” He didn’t say anything further, nor did he look back. From what he saw on that tablet, it was taking every ounce of his willpower to prevent his wife from going on what he was sure was going to be a death sentence. The muzzle of Pharynx’s CZ-805 BREN A2 roared and spat flame as it belched 5.56x45mm NATO rounds towards the boiling throngs below. A weapon he’d picked up during his early days with the Agency, he’d found it to be far more comfortable than even the more recent weapons that had been made by the various weapons manufacturers around the world. It was a small miracle that he’d kept a hold of it during all his capers throughout the years, and it had served him well. However, as wonderful a weapon as it was, one thing it was not was a holy talisman against all evil. And he was finding that out right now and he emptied the rest of his magazine into the creatures that roiled and screamed from below. It was like a massive orgy of blood down there, with some of the “squats” (as Stygian had coined them) rushing into the buildings for cover; some trying to scale the outside only to be picked off; and a few trying in vain to hurtle various items, from pieces of concrete and asphalt to the skulls of their victims at those that would harm them. A few even, much to his disgust, continued to be uninterested in the whole process, choosing instead to rut with the females of their type or even eat a few of their own dead. If this was the Octos way of insulting humanity – by coming up with sickening parodies of it – then it was certainly a method that was working all too well. “Well, this was a fucking great idea you got, Chryssie!” he shouted back at his commander. “Let’s just piss off the inhuman freaks down there with no escape route for us!” “Shut the hell up and keep shooting!” From her point on the other side of the building, Chrysalis slapped another magazine into her own M110 CSASS and continued to fire down into the crowd. Unlike the others, and befitting her own talent as a marksman, she took careful aim before firing. The 7.62x51mm round lanced away from the top of the building, hammering into and through the head of one of the squats, nearly taking off most of the creature’s cranium. The body jiggled and quivered slightly before falling silent and as its dead, beady orange eyes looked at through the tuft of remaining electric blue hair, the thick, viscous muddy-red blood flowing onto the creature’s light-yellow skin, she shuddered. For a second, she thought she saw gratitude in the thing’s eyes, but that was impossible, wasn’t it? The silence from her people was deafening, and it was enough to make her think a bit more. “Okay, okay, there were a lot more than I expected! Not one of my better ideas!” she admitted. “As it is, we should be glad that they’re stupid enough not to figure out how to get up here!” “You’d better hope so, boss,” Smolder replied, going weapons free with her own M6A2B. “I can’t exactly fly us out of here on my drones!” “Maybe we should call for backup?” Yona suggested. At the moment, her M249 Mk46 roared like a lion, hammering everything in range downstairs. Fountains of the strange blood spurted from below, a deadly sign that she’d found her mark. “That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Gallus shouted in a typical French, arrogant tone. He and Stygian were both using AK-9s; when Chrysalis had seen them, she had wondered where they obtained them, as those guns, even now, were still hard to get. However, right now, they were very effective, so she couldn’t argue their use or their owners’ decisions. As for Stygian, he said nothing, but the look of glee on his face from slaughtering the monsters down below was more than enough to speak for him. “We do that, and with the numbers that are down there, anyone coming to rescue us is going to fall into a trap,” Chrysalis told them. “We’re going to have to get ourselves out of this one and—” “SONUVABITCH!” The shout had come from Smolder. They all turned in her direction. “The fuckers are scaling the building!” she cried, pointing at the ground. Chrysalis raced over and looked down; sure enough, despite the amount of ammunition being rained down on their heads, the squats were starting to slowly make their way up the sides of the building. Thankfully, the glass on the outside had held throughout all these years, or else they’d have the issue of the creatures slowly making their way up the inside of the building. “You sure that you barricaded the way down for us?” Chrysalis asked the others. “Yeah. I set things so that the elevators are halfway down their shafts, so they can’t climb up that way,” Stygian said with a mirthless grin. “I’m not going to breathe my fucking dying breath until I make sure that I take a lot of these motherfuckers with me. And as for the stairs, we made sure those are blocked. Those fuckers are going to have to make their way through a shitload of crap in order to get to us.” “Are you fucking kidding? These things are literally punching handholds in the side of the building in order to make their way to us!” Sandbar cried out, pulling the pin on a grenade and letting it fall over the side. The olive-green metal oval fell into the throng of monsters below and with a muffled CRUMP a spray of blood, bone and offal went in all directions, painting the side of the building with splashes of auburn. “Well, that did exactly jack shit, Sandy,” Smolder told him. “Took out maybe a dozen, tops?” Sandbar began firing down again. “Got a better fucking idea?” She shook her head. “Not really, no,” then joined him. “Chrys, I think you’d better call for backup,” Pharynx told her. “I don’t get a bad feeling about things often, but I have a really bad one about this go-around.” The line suddenly erupted with static. “Queen Bee, Sierra Six Delta. You there? Over.” Chrysalis cued her mic. “Yeah. Hate to say it, but we could use a little help here!” “We’ll do what we can,” Applejack promised. “We’re inbound, not sure what the ETA is, but we’re hauling ass!” “You know what we’re up against, right?” “Yeah, I saw. Just means we’ll have to do things the fun way.” “I owe you one! First girl Shining and I have is named after you!” the woman insisted. A laugh came over the line. “Let’s just start with you buying the next round of beers and we’ll call it that, okay?” “Deal! Queen Bee, out!” She turned to her folks. “Weapons free! Cavalry’s coming!” At that point they began to hear the screeching of metal. All eyes turned towards the entrance to the roof, which was a solid metal door. Said door was now starting to show blisters as something was punching at it. The Changelings took aim at the door. “I thought you said they weren’t going to get through that shit?” Chrysalis argued. “Hey, I’m a mafia assassin, not a fucking mathmetician!” Stygian argued. “Mathematician,” Yona stated. “Who the fuck cares?” “If we’re going to die, may as well get it right,” Yona argued. She hustled to the far side of the building, where the squats had congregated the least. “That building over there is smaller. If you run and jump, you can make it.” Chrysalis went over and looked as well, doing quick mental calculations. “And if we don’t, we’re squat chow – probably literally,” she drolled. “Better to die as a thinking human than to just surrender,” she said. “Everyone give me your grenades. Someone also give me sidearms, too.” “Why?” Yona laughed as she walked back to a position just before the damaged door. “Why not? I’m too big and bulky of a bitch. I would never make that jump.” Thick muscles hefted her SAW once more. “Better that someone stay behind to make sure they don’t get the same idea – they seem to be smarter than just dumb animals. And since I’m the bitch with the big gun, who better?” She pointed to the other building. “Go, while you still can.” As if to make her point, the hammering on the door started to get louder, and the frame began to warp visibly. Chrysalis reluctantly held out her pistol. “You better damn not die on me, am I clear?” “In my home country, there’s a saying: ‘A man falls seven times but rises eight.’ I have survived worse. I will survive this, too.” Pharynx withdrew his sidearm, looked at it, then looked at her. “I should be the one to do this, not you.” “No. You have Ocellus to look after. Go.” She then looked at the rest of them. “This will suffice.” “Yona….” She patted him on the shoulder. “If I make it out of this, I am going to break your legs. Now go!” With that, the remaining Changelings jumped for all they were worth, in an action that would be either suicide or salvation. As the last one cleared, the door tore away and out of the entrance boiled dozens of squats like a murderous swarm of wolves, all teeth and sinew. Yona, however, raised her rifle and began to fire with abandon, screaming, “ZA, GICHII KHÖVGÜÜD EE! CHI YAG L AMITAD SHIG ÜKHEKH TSAG BOLLOO!” Chrysalis took one last look at the giantess of a woman before running as far and fast as her legs could carry her. Way back when she was younger, in her high school days, she’d briefly played basketball on the JV team but had never been good enough to make it to the varsity team, much less college hoops. But she did remember all the times her coach made her and her teammates hustle up and down the court. As she rushed to the edge of the building and jumped, her last thought as she had air around her and nothing but 110 feet of air below her, was that she’d never been good enough to make a hook shot – she was too short for that. And yet here she was, clearing more air than she had ever done in her life. Before she could comment any further, however, she came in for a hard landing, crashing against and through a galvanized steel cupola-shaped air vent on the next building. She vaguely felt something inside her crack, and then she felt nothing more. By the time the two JLTVs roared out of Meadowglade Station, ramming the fence to the accessway so they could hit the street, they drove over the bones of the fallen and the corpses of the squats. “What the fuck is that?” one of the SEALs asked. “Doesn’t fucking matter!” Applejack shouted. “Stop the fucking car!” The driver immediately hit the brakes, and as she did, the SEAL commander hopped out of the vehicle and with the effortless ease of someone who was long used to drawing her weapon, brought it to firing position, pulled the trigger and sent a round straight through the head of a big squat with deep red skin and thatched orange hair. “LADIES, YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS!” she shouted. “WEAPONS FREE! ROCK AND ROLL – OPEN SEASON ON THE TANGOS!” > Fire and Fang > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once upon a time, she was a little girl who hid from everything. It was even in her name – Fluttershy. It wasn’t what her parents wanted to name her; they had told her that they actually wanted to name her Flutterby, after her maternal grandmother. But the hospital had screwed up on the birth certificate and per Colorado law, what was on the birth certificate became the legal name. So, Flutterby, the daughter of Cirrus Breeze and Tearose, became Fluttershy, instead. It was a name she’d had to live with, throughout her whole life. It defined her – sometimes too much. And it had made her do things she didn’t want to do at times. Things she’d regretted, whether it was giving in to her first boyfriend’s demand to go all the way, or having Sunset Shimmer find out and bully her over it. Or turning the tables on Sunset unfairly, after having forgiven her past…only to throw it away like it was nothing. She regretted so much. She regretted losing her virginity to Easy Play, because as soon as she gave in, he dumped her. And in a sense, she’d done the same to Sunset, though obviously there was no romance between them. But the effect was the same: a deep, abiding friendship that she’d pissed on, stomped on, and hadn’t given a fuck about…until it was too late. Now, she had a chance, for a change, to make things right. She had a husband who she knew loved her – and was certainly better in bed than the teenage fumbling she’d had with Easy Play. She had a career that she could be proud of; two, if she counted her previous career as a teacher – she was sure if her parents had survived Decimation, they would have been proud as well. And just as important, she could save Sunset – no, not just Sunset…she could save her fractured friendships from long ago and prove herself capable of saving the one person who needed saving the most. Doctor, heal thyself. All she had to do…was to do more things she regretted. So for the first time in her life, Fluttershy took steady aim with her rifle and with the weight of the world on her shoulders, took that of another. She pulled the trigger, felt the buck of her FN SCAR loaned to her by one of the SEALs, saw the casing eject out of the corner of her eye, and practically swore she could trace the line of the bullet she fired as it crossed the path and bored right into the skull of one of the creatures, a brutish-looking female with yellow skin and long pink hair the same shade as hers. Unnatural cyan eyes, the same color as her own, fixed onto her with a brief flash of hatred, then a surprising look that seemed like relief, as a thick reddish-brown fluid spurted out from the hole in her brainpan. The creature fell back, dead and it was then that Fluttershy noted that despite how different it looked, how human its overall body frame was, too. That, and from the distended belly…the thing was likely pregnant. She suddenly felt violently ill, more so than her first days practicing as a medical trainee under the supervision of Dr. Suture. He had told her that even though she was vomiting because of all the blood and gore, that it was a good thing – it proved she was human and would overcome that to save her own people. In time, she had. But this…this was different. As she retched on the ground, spewing both her breakfast and the coffee from earlier, this was a sign that she was anything but human. Humans weren’t meant to take lives, even those of the beings trying to take theirs. She had no idea how Applejack had grown from a strong but gentle girl to the woman barking orders and slaughtering these things like it was nothing. She wondered if all of this was worth losing her soul in the long run. “Major?” She turned to see Orderly, one of the petty officers that served as a combat medic – corpsman, in Navy parlance. She was looking at Fluttershy with concern, her gray eyes radiating worry. “I’m okay, Petty Officer,” she lied. “I’ve seen worse.” “I’m sure you have…but you probably never had to take a life before,” she added. “Trust me, I’ve read the old Geneva Conventions and the Yellowknife Accords. In the old days, we wouldn’t have been able to fire at the enemy unless it was to save our patients. Now, we don’t have a choice, or else those with us end up that way.” Fluttershy, however, wasn’t convinced – it was the pacifist in her, she knew. She didn’t see the value in taking a life, even that of an insane hellbeast trying to kill them all and who would have given birth to others like it. But at the same time…what if it had been Flash out here? Applejack was out there right now, fighting for her life, as well as that of her soldiers and the scouts that had gone ahead. Was there no value in that? Fluttershy spat the remaining bile out of her mouth, then looked at Orderly. “I’ll be fine,” she said, forcing every word. “I have to do this. For Sunset.” Before Orderly could ask any other questions, Fluttershy got back to her feet and took aim once more. After a second, she fired again, the round blowing through the kneecap of another enemy, dropping it to the ground. She didn’t know if she had the stomach to do what she’d just done again, but she could do at least this much. She prayed she would never find the strength to do what Applejack was doing. Getting so close to one of the beasts that she could practically feel the heat of his breath on her face, she quickly fired a point-blank burst into hopefully what was where the monster’s heart was located. The bullets punched through the body, leaving a basketball-sized exit hole on the way out, tearing out gouts of the creature’s back. The thing fell dead, immediately, slamming Applejack to the floor. “Get this fucker off me!” she snarled. Tempest rushed over and helped her friend out, pushing the corpse off the woman. “Damn, Jackie, you always go for the well-built ones,” she snarked, pointing at the creature’s lower half. Applejack gave her friend a grin as she got back up. “Well, I do like my guys well-hung…but I also like them human, Temp.” “Well, let’s survive this and maybe there’ll be a few of the guys in Canterlot we can play with.” Applejack began firing again, opting not to let the targets get so close this time. “Well, focus on that later. Right now we need to find out what happened to Chryssie and her folks, because I am not going to be the one to tell the Colonel that his second girl got dusted!” The SEALs turned the air into a practical wall of ammunition, rounds flying through the air, slicing everything in their path. Squats by the dozens began to fall, torn apart by the hail of gunfire, the projectiles ripping their way through organs, sinew and anything else. Fortunately for the troops present, the enemies they currently faced weren’t armed or armored; however, they were fast and strong and more than a couple of them made their way towards the group, where they were able to inflict damage on some of the sailors present. One such creature managed to reach out with long arms and grab one of the SEALs by the head; without batting an eye it crushed it, the decapitated body falling towards the ground and while smaller squats immediately moved towards the new food. Another large one, a female this time, grabbed one of the SEALs by the arms and the legs and with a roar of pain from the bullets tossed at her, literally ripped the woman in half. That just enraged the humans all the more. At least two of their number were down and so likely were the Changelings; if Applejack didn’t find a way to take the rest of these creatures out, they would be next. The blonde took a look to her right; in the distance, by the vehicles and alternating between patching up wounded troops and continuing the fight were both Orderly and Fluttershy. She saw as Fluttershy covered Orderly, aiming and firing with a professionalism she would have not have expected from the woman; she knew that Flash had trained her on how to use weapons, but even still…the girl she had known back then would have run in fear from the sound of gunfire, and she would have tried to go out to protect the “innocent, misunderstood creatures.” How much had Fluttershy changed? And if she’d changed to the point that she went from a shy, scared girl to a doctor and now to a soldier and combat medic…what would that mean for Rarity, or Pinkie Pie, or Rainbow Dash? What about yourself? a part of her mind self-inquired. Another one rushed up to her, an orange-skinned female with burning yellow eyes and long, shaggy blue hair that looked as though she wanted to rip her heart out. Thinking fast, Applejack clotheslined the creature, and as it fell to the ground, she stepped on its throat and fired a burst right into the brainpan, killing it instantly. Another creature howled – likely the female’s mate, though who the hell knew how these things acted – and she took aim, dispatching it as well. The numbers were slowly, but surely beginning to turn. An explosion came from one of the top of the buildings, and Applejack looked up to see a few of the creatures’ bodies being flung off. “Lt. Shadow!” Applejack bellowed. “Take a fireteam up there and go find out what happened to them! Make sure you have a SAW with you! Also, take one of the Docs, just in case!” “On it, Commander!” Tempest noted, signaling for a group to follow her as she hustled across the street. She also signaled for Orderly to follow, and noting that, Applejack ran over to Fluttershy’s side. It wasn’t a good look for her not to lead her troops right now, but technically Fluttershy was their senior medical person as well as the overall technical senior officer present, so she had to be protected. Moreover, Applejack wasn’t going to let her friend die, not after they finally buried the hatchet. She found Fluttershy barking orders to a nearby guard while she worked on a nasty wound on one of the SEALs. Without even looking at Applejack, the major replied, “One of these…things…decided to take a chunk out of her leg. She’ll heal, but she’s going to need to be patched up by my folks and she’s going to need to be out of the fight for a few. The bigger concern is going to have her blood checked for strange bacteria and other things. We don’t know what’s in the gut flora of these creatures, if they have venom or anything like that.” “How are you holding up?” She continued to focus on her handiwork instead of her friend. “I’m trying to save one of your people from bleeding out, AJ. What the fuck do you think I’m doing? Now go do something useful and keep those bastards off our back, okay?” The salty language coming from Fluttershy was a brief surprise, but only until Applejack remembered the woman before her wasn’t the same as the high school girl she remembered. “I was just checking on you,” Applejack defended. “I’ll have my mental breakdown later. For now, I need to make sure your person can get on the car okay. So go do what you gotta do. We’ll talk later.” Applejack was about to protest, when one of her chiefs came up to her. She immediately got dragged away, leaving Fluttershy to her grisly work. Vaulting up the stairs, Tempest practically ran ahead of her troops. The explosions from the top of the building she was now running through had to be an indicator that some of the Changelings still survived, and if so, Tempest was not going to leave them behind. Even if there were only remains, at least they would be repatriated. It was the way the US military worked – never leave a man behind and that was definitely how Tempest operated. In the tight confines of the stairwell, the SEALs pushed their way through the technicolor beasts, gunning them down where they could and if they got too close, threw them down into the center of the stairwell, where more than a few broke their necks from the impact. From the size of the attackers, they would have been children if they had been human, and that distinctly unnerved Tempest. But she shoved it out of her mind; a lion cub could kill under the right conditions, after all. And children or not (and there was really no way to know), they clearly had the murderous mind of their species. It’s us or them, she grimly mused as she and her forces continued to push forward, floor by floor. Finally, grueling minutes later, as she and her forces reached the top of the building, the amount of carnage that awaited them actually surprised them. Strewn body parts, entrails and destroyed bodies of squats were everywhere, alongside copious bulletholes, heavily-damaged sections of concrete and extensive carbon scoring. The group rushed out to find a woman built like a yak, seated almost atop a small mound of corpses, with most of her clothing shredded and covered in the muddy-colored blood of the creatures. “Orderly!” Tempest ordered, but she didn’t need to, as the corpsman rushed over to the muscled woman. “Get off me,” she said, firmly but not unkindly. “It’s not my blood.” “It’s not the blood I’m worried about,” Orderly said, checking the woman for bitemarks and the like. “Oh, that. Heh – I’ve had some clients that were rougher. At least they paid, though.” Meanwhile, Tempest looked at her. “So, Agent…er….” “Yona.” “Got it. Anyway, Agent Yona, what happened?” The woman shrugged and grinned. “Isn’t it obvious? As you Americans say, I cleaned their clocks. As to what happened to my people?” She pointed over the edge. Tempest gave her a disbelieving look. “Call me crazy, but I don’t believe that they commi—” “L-T?” one of the SEALs called out, looking over the edge where Yona had pointed. Tempest went over to join her and looked down. There, on a building two stories down, were the other Changelings lay, crumpled, clearly unconscious and relatively safe. Yona limped over to them. “See? Safe. Or as safe as could be, given the circumstances.” “Yeah, I see,” Tempest said tersely. “C’mon, we gotta get to that other building while we still have the chance.” The SEALs continued urban warfare as only they knew how, pushing forward with their weapons against the strange creatures. Gunfire went up against tooth and fist, firepower against bestial fury. Slowly, inexorably, the battle-hardened warriors from the sea continued to push on, using tactics and skill that moved past what the basic, instinctive actions of the other creatures seemed to do. The stakes were high – victory or death – for either side, and neither side could afford to back down at this point. In the middle of it, Applejack was a virtual war god at work, using her rifle to cut down the creatures as they continued to make their way towards the SEALs, mindless of the slaughter. The life of her people – of her friends and subordinates – hinged on her success and she couldn’t afford to give a single inch. Her face tightened in a mask of cold rage, and for a moment to an outside observer, it might have been hard to tell which creature was the more bestial. Nonetheless, the blonde continued to use every weapon, trick and skill in her arsenal to continue to hack away at the living press of rampaging creatures coming at them. From the relative safety of the JLTV and the ad hoc barriers that had been quickly set up by the other SEALs, Fluttershy continued to fire her own weapon. Her initial self-doubt and angst had fallen by the fact that her patient had gone into shock as a result of the injuries to her leg, and had Fluttershy not slapped her up with morphine and put her in the back of the JLTV, it probably would not have gone well for the woman. As it was, it meant that she was under Fluttershy’s care and the doctor now had the requirement to keep her charge alive. And so Fluttershy would see to that grim duty, even if it meant taking more lives. The air between the two groups burned and sizzled with dozens of rounds crossing space in one direction, while trails of blood and other fluids came towards the group from the opposing direction. Many bodies of the creatures, both male and female, adult and juvenile, continued to hurl themselves at the human combatants, seemingly insatiable in their berserker-fueled blood lust. The environs of this particular neighborhood of Canterlot, having already dealt with five years of neglect and other issues, practically fell to pieces due to the conflict between the two groups, in particular sheer ordnance being flung by the troops. After what felt like a small eternity, a huge, muscled male creature with soft brown skin, and pine green hair and eyes that burned with an insane rage stepped atop the rusting remains of a car left behind years ago. The beast screamed into the air as if to bellow a war cry, then trained his eyes straight on Applejack, as if he somehow knew she was the one in charge. Applejack’s own bright green eyes met the creature, accepting his challenge. She turned to one of the SEALs next to her. “Give me your knife,” she said to the nearest subordinate while handing over her rifle. “Commander?” the woman asked. Applejack turned to her. “Give me your KA-BAR,” she ordered as she handed over her rifle. Looking at her curiously, she said to the woman, “Let Senior Chief know she’s in charge until Lt. Shadow gets back, assuming I don’t survive this.” To her credit, the woman didn’t argue. “Kick its ass, Commander!” she chirped. “Fuck Six!” Applejack snarled as she rushed forward to engage the beast in single combat. The creature did so as well and as the thing rushed towards her, the woman slid underneath his open legs as he reached out to grab her. As she did, she moved fast, slicing at his hamstrings, in the hopes of crippling the monster. Unfortunately, his skin was thicker than expected and while she drew blood, she didn’t cut deep enough to do the damage she wanted. The monster turned and roared, kicking at her, though she was able to get clear in time. She scrambled back to her feet and brought her knives back up to a fighting position. “You’re not going to live to see tomorrow,” she hissed, glad that she’d taken the time to learn knife fighting while she was working on her officer qualifications. Most SEALs generally didn’t see it as a useful trait, but her instructor, a burly Master Chief named Tanto, told her that with her looks and youth, she had to find a way to protect herself at all costs in case something ever happened to her behind enemy lines. He had taught her quite a few things and for that she was forever grateful. After he died two years back as a result of a battle in Europe, he had passed without family and had bequeathed to her his own Russian-made Storm knife, where he’d gotten from “unspecified circumstances”. Now she wielded that knife in one hand and the borrowed KA-BAR in the other, and as her foe lunged at her, she moved with practiced fury, slashing and dodging, pushing harder to do more than just leave a small cut. She didn’t have time to kill him via a metaphorical death by a thousand papercuts and hope he just bled out. The creature would likely kill her long before then. She was going to have to close the distance, push forth and improvise, even if it was going to be extremely dangerous. Then again, I’ve done extremely dangerous before, she thought, a dangerous grin coming over her face. I lived through that, too. She immediately dashed forward, hoping the plan she was making up on the fly would work. If it did, great. If not, well, hopefully she wouldn’t have a prolonged, painful death. She rushed into his range, and as the creature reached out once more, she buried the KA-BAR in his arm, pulling as hard as she could, scoring a brutal blow as she punched hard into the skin and cut hard down the inside of his arm, where the skin was thinnest. A jet of brownish-red blood sprayed out as the monster bellowed in pain. Unfortunately, at that point, he lashed out with his remaining hand, enveloping her head in his hand. She could feel the heat coming from his leathery fist as it tried to crush her head, protected only by her helmet. She could smell the fetid, musky odor coming from the appendage and it made her want to gag. But that was a reflex she couldn’t afford. As he squeezed harder, trying to crack her head like a walnut, she had just one narrowing opportunity to make her plan work. So with her knife, she slashed at her helmet strap, cutting it away and sliding out of it just as she heard the spider-silk biopolymer of her helmet shatter into nothing. She now had fractions of a second to act before the monster knew she’d escaped and reacted accordingly. As she landed on the ground, she immediately pounced, moving with a surety based on desperation. Taking both knives, she slammed them as hard as she could into the creature’s eyes, skewering both as they popped like small liquid-filled beads. As gore poured out of the monster’s ruined eyes, the creature roared in pain, which allowed Applejack to commit to the final part of her plan: reaching for her sidearm, she quickly unholstered it and without ceremony, slammed it into the creature’s mouth and fired, the high-powered, armor-piercing rounds tearing through the back of its neck, practically severing the top half of the head from the rest of the body. Now a corpse, the beast’s body fell back as Applejack pushed off it, quickly reloading in case she needed to fire a second magazine’s worth into the body, but it didn’t matter. There was a high-pitched keening cry and Applejack turned to see a petite female of the species scream into the air. At her cry, the creatures began to immediately rush away, and the combat veteran immediately realized what the creature had done: she had called a retreat, and she was high enough in whatever social hierarchy that they listened. The monsters began to boil away from the SEALs and with that, the troops weren’t going to take a chance at all. Joining her troops in seizing the initiative, Applejack briefly busied herself switching from her pistol back to her rifle, and that turned out to be a tragic distraction: she felt herself slammed into by the female from earlier, who had rammed her hard enough that the combat veteran was hammered into the wall of a nearby building. She felt the blow through her body armor, and the back of her head bounced off the concrete, stunning her. As she felt herself crumple to the floor, Applejack went back for her pistol on instinct, only to feel it swatted out of her hand. As her green eyes blurrily focused on the creature before her, she saw something in the beast’s piercing purple eyes that she hadn’t seen in the others – this one was intelligent, smarter than the others and had figured out what a pistol did. Applejack knew that her knives were buried in the dead alpha male, and now that she was pinned to the ground with her rifle slung on her back, she had no defense. Furthermore, with the petite creature baring its teeth and snarling at her while standing atop her, Applejack also knew she was as good as dead. She had one last card to pull – and it wasn’t going to be one she was going to survive. Reaching for her belt, she pulled a grenade, glaring at her soon-to-be-killer. “Do your worst,” Applejack hissed. “You’re not going to survive this one, you bitch!” She reached for the pin. “NO!” Applejack knew that shout. Instinct told her not to pull the clip, and instead looked at her captor’s face. It was now a mask of frozen fear, looking in the direction of the scream. A second later, Applejack looked in the same direction and realized why: there, walking towards them, bathed in burning green light, was Fluttershy, her normally placid cyan eyes replaced by burning pits of jade fire, her face contorted into a mask of unquestionable authority. It was the Stare – but now, backed up by Fluttershy’s magic. The creature whimpered and took a step back, just as Fluttershy raised her pistol. “Get the fuck off my friend, you bitch!” the pink-haired woman snarled as she started firing at the creature. The first two bullets sank in deep, making the female scream. Now terrified of Fluttershy and the spell broken, it turned to run and join its fellow creatures, ignoring the wounds leaking the strange-colored blood from her side. “AJ! Don’t let it escape!” Fluttershy shouted. “On it!” Now freed of her captor, Applejack immediately turned the tables, hopping back to her feet, and in one smooth motion, pulling out her rifle and firing two quick bursts of fire. The rounds sank into the creature’s tendons, shredding them and making the creature collapse. As she approached, weapon in hand, she saw the creature shrink back from her, another sign of intelligence. I have no idea what these things are, Applejack mused as she saw the creature try to crawl away, but if we need you to win the war, so be it. It was then that she suddenly felt warm, like a flush of adrenaline was coursing through her system. She was used to that normally; battle reflexes, conditioned by long years of battle in the field, made her pretty much immune to the biochemical her body produced that gave her that extra “oomph”. But this was different. This felt more comfortable, easier to deal with. Like it was a true part of her soul. She looked down at her hand and saw citrine flames dancing in her palm. She didn’t know how she looked to the others but given how she’d just seen Fluttershy a few seconds ago, it was likely that she looked as otherworldly and unusual as her friend had. But right now, she couldn’t afford to think about that. Instead, she walked over and, aware of the power coursing through her, punched the creature as softly as she could, no different than she used to slug her brother and sister when she was younger – a love tap, really. Said “love tap” set off an explosion of golden fire that sent the creature flying back, across the street into the wall of another building, leaving a small crater. The blow likely broke a couple of bones at least, given the way the female crashed to the ground like a wet sack. “AJ?” Fluttershy gasped. “You’re….” “No different than you,” Applejack told her. She then glanced at the looks of shock on her troops; they had seen it, too. She had to take command of the situation, and fast. “Okay, I want two of you to take some of the 550 cord we have and hogtie that bitch like it’s no tomorrow. Tie her to the top of the vehicle.” She then pointed in the direction of where the other creatures had gone. “I want two fireteams to head in the same direction as those other fuckers. Make sure they’re out of the area, but don’t give chase. I don’t want you getting surrounded. “As for the rest of you….” Applejack sighed. “I know many of you are all in WTFO mode, and you’ve got questions about what you just saw. Hell, I’d be surprised as shit if you didn’t. But as your OIC…no, as a fellow SEAL, I’m asking you to wait until we have everyone together and we’re in a safe location. Then I’ll go over everything. I promise.” “Are you sure that’s a good idea, AJ?” Fluttershy asked. “These girls follow me to hell and back,” Applejack insisted as she watched two of her SEALs head over to the stunned creature to capture and subdue it. “I owe them the truth. Besides, I’ve never been any fucking good at lying; why the hell am I going to start now?” “AAAAAAGH, fuck me that hurt!” Chrysalis gnashed her teeth as Orderly set her arm in a sling. She’d survived the jump with a broken arm, a concussion and some other scrapes, but at least she was alive. Standing above her, Applejack crossed her arms. “Well, good to see that you’re still alive, Chryssie. Honestly, I was worried.” “Fuck you, Jackie,” she said, laughing off her pain. “You just wanted to do an ‘I told you so’.” “No, that’s usually my line,” Tempest said with a grin. “But right now, Jackie’s got me beat. You seriously turned into some superwoman glowstick and punched the head off the alpha of these…what did you call them again, Chryssie?” “We’re calling them squats. We have a formal name but that sounds stupid, so we’re going with squats.” “Right. So anyway, you super-punched one across the street?” “Stop making it sound like it was a big deal, Temp,” Applejack sighed. Once Tempest had come back with the surviving Changelings – which, thankfully, was all of them – Applejack explained everything that had happened, with some backing from both Fluttershy and Chrysalis. After the spymaster explained to those present that Applejack and Fluttershy’s powers were classified at the highest level possible, they all agreed to keep them a secret. Moreover, given their respect for the SEAL commander, they would have agreed to do that anyway. “It is a big deal, Jackie! Do you know what would happen if—” “That bastard Sombra knows, Temp, remember? Why the hell do you think I’m out here?” Tempest ran her fingers over her short magenta hair. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. So, anyway, what are you going to do with your date? I see you already have her tied up, nice and easy.” “We don’t know anything about them, Lieutenant.” It was Fluttershy that answered. “We need to find out exactly what these things are, besides the fact that they seem to be designed based on human forms.” “Think the Octos are trying to create them in order to sniff us out or something, Major?” The pink-haired woman shook her head. “No. Call it instinct, but…I think it’s something worse than that.” MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 241126TJUL30: Once they arrived back at their makeshift base, Bolt was there to meet them all. “Christ, Fluttershy,” she told her friend, an exasperated look on her face. “Are you out of your mind?” “Depends on what you mean by that,” Fluttershy responded, a wry smile on hers. “You just captured…I don’t know! A wild animal, some kind of mutant thing, fuck, whatever you want to call it! I don’t even know what the fuck it is, much less what it eats—” “You don’t want to know, Boltie, believe me.” The look on the older woman’s face became bleak. “We have video confirmation and I wish to God we didn’t.” “I’ll take your word for it,” the lieutenant insisted. “That being, said, what are you going to do with that thing? I mean, we just can’t keep it tied up forever….” “AJ’s folks are working on that. They think they might be able to put together some sort of holding cell for the thing out of one of the remaining train cars we haven’t used. As to what we’ll feed it, I don’t know. I know sure as hell we’re not going to feed it what it was eating. Maybe we can catch a rabbit or one of the other animals that are running around here.” “I remember when you would do anything to prevent animals from being hurt,” Applejack said as she approached, with Tempest right behind her. “Weren’t you a member of PETA or something?” “That was a long time ago,” was all she said. “In any case, what have you got?” “My folks are building the cage, and afterwards we’ll let that thing loose in it,” Applejack explained. “Some of my folks want to spray that thing off, because it’s caked in dirt, grime and a whole bunch of other things that we don’t want to know about.” “Not just yet; just make sure it’s placed in there safely. Afterwards, I want all your people, as well as you two, to have a medical checkup. We don’t know what kind of parasites, viruses or bacteria live on these things.” “I really don’t think that we’re going to turn into zombies, Flutters.” “And I’d like to keep it that way. No arguments, AJ.” “Fine, fine. Temp, have the chiefs set up times to have their medics look after us.” She then sighed. “I guess you’re also going to want to do autopsies on my lost folks?” “How many?” “Ens. Pineapple Swirl, SO1 Berry Blitz and SO3 Sweet Sasparilla,” Tempest commented. “Christ, SO3 Sasparilla just joined us, too. She was straight out of SQT – didn’t even come from another SEAL Team. Just a fucking kid, and now she’s gone.” “We’re getting old, Temp,” Applejack mused. “Don’t remind me.” “I think we should,” Fluttershy stated. “I’ll take care of that personally, and that should give you time to prepare a decent burial for them.” “I appreciate that, Flutters,” Applejack told her, while Tempest silently nodded. The blonde then turned to Bolt. “Send a Priority message to Splash 6 and Spacebase and update them on everything. Additionally, inform Spacebase…that we’re going to need personnel replacements.” “Roger that, Commander,” Bolt said simply, departing to do her duties. The three remaining women were silent for all this time, before Tempest spoke: “I just hope to hell Cpt. Sentry’s folks had an easier time of it, or else this is going to get real fucking messy.” “Same,” Fluttershy agreed. > Μεγάλη Ελλάς > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CANTERLOT, COLORADO 240612TJUL30: The morning light shone in the little home they shared. One, it had been a third-floor luxury apartment in the Canterlot Grand InterContinental; now, even despite the ruined condition, the luxury hotel still had much of its aura remaining in it. The fact that the generators and solar panels still worked after all these years helped a lot; that somehow, they’d survived living so long here made it all the more worthwhile. As the woman the militia had nicknamed Hera sat up in bed, she looked out the window at the ruined Canterlot skyline. This was both her heaven and her hell. Her hell, because she’d opted to stay here and guide everyone, even as it had cost her everything, including the use of her legs. Her heaven, because in the process, she’d gained a husband out of all this, even if she hadn’t expected the relationship to go the way it had. One that doesn’t mind the fact that I’m finally going gray after all this time, she mused. It was bound to happen; no one lived forever, after all. She just wished she could ward off the years a little longer, at least until she had a chance at a genuine happily ever after with her beloved. But that was no more likely in the cards than her aging process was likely to halt at her whim. A few seconds later, a man walked in. Barechested and showing his muscles, his dapper smile shone through his well-tended beard. They called him Zeus, not just because he’d assumed the mantle of leadership for the Canterlot militia, but also because of his chiseled good looks and commanding presence. They had eagerly followed his command and under his leadership the Canterlot militia had not only survived but were now on the verge of taking back their home from the aliens. There was, of course, another reason why they were called Zeus and Hera, but that had been put to rest long ago by the sheer trust and respect they’d built up for themselves over the years. None would gainsay them now, and the people knew that Zeus and Hera would gladly lay their lives down for Canterlot and its surviving residents if that was what it took to be free. “I brought you some eggs and bacon,” he commented, setting the tray before her. “I didn’t know we had any left,” she said, reaching for a fork and spearing the yellow yolk, its golden treasure running all over the whites of the over-easy dish. “Oh, eggs we have plenty of,” he commented lightly. “The bacon…well, I’ve been assured that it is a meat of some kind and probably safe to eat. That, or we’ve eaten so much of it over the years that we aren’t likely to die any longer from what it really likely is.” She took another bite before hearing the growl of his stomach. “You haven’t eaten yet,” she accused. “I can grab a protein bar from the storage when we get down to the meeting area,” he told her. “Besides, it’s more important that you eat. You need your strength for today.” Her mind rifled through her mental calendar. “Is today the day we’re meeting up with the Army?” “Supposedly. I’ve asked Button to take the lead on this one, at least until we can be sure that we can trust them.” He sighed. “Never thought I’d ever say that in a million years, given my pedigree.” “We’ve changed, love. For better or for worse,” she told him. She then narrowed his eyes at him. “Now, are you going to eat, or will I have to—” “I thought we agreed that you would never do that again.” It was an old joke between them, the punchline given. “Don’t worry, I have other ways of making you listen to me,” she said, smiling winsomely and completing the old statement between the two. He then leaned forward and kissed her tenderly, the sign of love between them overcoming their gap in age. “Finish up, and then I’ll carry you to the shower. I’m sure you’ll want to look your best for our gallant military forces,” he told her. “And since you insist that I eat something, I’ll go whip myself something up as well.” She nodded, then watched his form as he left. She could feel those strong muscles of his still as he held her at night, felt their bodies pressed together during their lovemaking, felt the warmth of his touch whenever she was physically or emotionally weak from her wounds. For better or worse, he was hers and she was his – and nothing would change that. Moving forward slowly, but with purpose, the men and women of Company D, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment moved through the tunnels of the subway, warier than usual due to the confined spaces. The “Demon Dawgs”, as the unit was nicknamed, had a long and storied history, and under their current leadership, they continued to make history. At the moment, said leader, Cpt. Flash Sentry, paused the group in order to speak to his lieutenants and sergeants. “So, looks like we got the easy job,” he commented with his usual wit. “So you’re saying you would’ve preferred heading out to party with the SEALs?” 1st Lt. Summer Storm commented. A native of Arizona, he came from a long line of Army soldiers and Flash silently admitted that it wouldn’t have been a surprise if someday soon Storm would be heading up his own company instead of being Company D’s XO and head of the 2nd Platoon. “Nope, fuck that – I might be Army gung-ho, but I’m not as suicidal as those bitches are,” chimed in 2nd Lt. Silken Steel, the 3rd Platoon leader. Out of all the members of Flash’s unit, she was the only one who knew that Flash was married to Fluttershy, but generally kept it to herself. Given, however, that she often flirted with him, sometimes Flash wondered if he should consider transferring her to another unit before she got out of hand. “Cmdr. Apple is an old friend of mine, Lieutenant,” Flash admonished her. “I’d appreciate it if you gave her some slack, especially given she’s the senior combat officer here.” “Be that as it may, sir, you don’t see me running around in Navy cammies and calling myself a sailor just because I have tits. I just have brains to go along with them.” A pause, as she realized she might have gone too far. “Sir,” she added in a sort of apology. “Just keep walking into that fuckup, Silky,” the last member of their group laughed. 2nd Lt. Scattershot was the newest member of the group, heading up the Heavy Weapons platoon. He hadn’t been with them long, having been a replacement for a good officer whose career had been ended when his head had been removed from his shoulders. As they moved through the tunnel, the cavernous feel only seemed to amplify every sound: every drop of water getting in from the surface, every metallic ring from broken, rusty pipes, every crumbling sound from disintegrating concrete and the scurrying of rodents, bugs and worse. The tunnel carried a noxious, fetid smell and though the air was breathable, it wasn’t the most pleasant in the world to inhale. Between that and the molding skeletons and frayed corpses of countless animals here, the soldiers had the impression as if they were invading a tomb, and that they would face off against ghouls and barrow-wights at any moment. “This is some creepy shit, Captain,” Silken told him. “I feel like we’re going to get torn the fuck up any moment now.” “Then we’ll just have to tear right back,” Storm said drily. The soldiers took a few more steps before they heard another set of footfalls. Flash signaled for them to come to a halt and silently they moved to find whatever cover they could in the tunnel. This part of the tunnel was mostly intact and as such didn’t have anything to use as cover, so if they were to encounter Octos down here, it would be a bloodbath. Pulling out his helmet mic, Flash tapped twice on the side, sending a prearranged signal to his senior cadre: Anyone have a view of the tangos? One by one, the soft beeps came back into his earpiece: none of the others could get a drop on whatever it was there. The only way they were going to find out if this was a trap…was to spring it. Reluctantly, he gave a signal to Scattershot, whose troops were closest to the situation. In turn, the lieutenant signaled to have three of the soldiers closest to the situation move even closer. It would very well mean their lives, everyone knew, but if that were the case, the soldiers of Company D would make sure to avenge their fallen, swiftly and surely. As the three soldiers crawled closer to the broken concrete centerpiece that they could use as cover, a voice from the darkness called out, “You don’t want to do that – we boobytrapped the whole area just in case.” One of the soldiers brought out a can of “aerosol trap detector” – or what used to be called Silly String back before Decimation – and hit the button on the can, spraying the gray goo everywhere. Long lines of gray aerosol foam fell towards earth…only to be stopped by thin lines here and there. “Piano wire,” the soldier stated. “Probably triggered to IEDs,” he called back to his group. “Yeah, well, hidden behind the rusting emergency repair box is a door. Go through that and it leads to an emergency exit. The exit itself is caved in, but the rest of the pathway winds around the minefield. We’ll meet you on the other side.” “And how do we know we can trust you?” Silken called out to the voice. Though the speaker’s face couldn’t be seen, it was clear that she was smirking. “I told you about the minefield, right? I could have easily just let you walk through it.” Before one of his other soldiers could say anything, Flash moved out from cover. “Okay, round up; you heard the lady. We’ll meet your folks on the other side, okay?” “How do you know I’m not alone?” “Because it’d be suicide to focus on any opponent by yourself,” Flash said with a grin. “I’ll bet at the very least you have a squad of three with you, one of which whose job it is to retreat and report numbers if you were overwhelmed.” Not waiting for an answer, he headed towards the door, with several of his people immediately following him, and then, eventually, the rest of the company followed. Sure enough, they found the door easily behind the easily-movable storage locker, and, after quickly checking the door, immediately opened it to reveal a large corridor, roomy enough for five people across heading down and curving away, the dim LED lighting somehow still active after all these years. As they moved into the emergency access tunnels, Flash made it a point to go first. Normally, as the company’s commanding officer, he would wait until most of the troop came in, but he’d always been the type to lead from the front whenever possible. Furthermore, they needed to show that they were not a threat to the Canterlot militia and the best way would be if Flash showed himself. Once the company was in, Flash instructed them to sling their weapons and just walk forward. When his junior officers protested, as a concession, he allowed the lieutenants to have their sidearms at the ready, but that was it. And with that, he walked down the hall, trying to project an air of confidence he wasn’t sure he felt. He wasn’t worried about himself, but with Fluttershy and Applejack out on their mission, he was concerned for the safety of his wife. Applejack would keep her safe, certainly, but…the Octos were out there and even SEALs died from their attacks. “That’s far enough.” Around a corner, a woman came out, carrying what looked to be an outdated, yet still maintained AR-15 – probably jerry-rigged to act more like the aged M-16s that Flash occasionally came across now and then – and she looked like she knew how to handle it. Despite her patched and relatively threadbare clothing, she still seemed very formidable, and from the way the other militia members behind her carried themselves, it was very clear who was in charge here, assisted by her commanding presence. There was also something familiar about her, the way she carried herself regally, but Flash couldn’t put his finger on it just yet. “So, I did the courtesy of letting you around the planted bombs, just out of respect for our leader,” she said, “but that’s as far as my courtesy goes. Now, do you mind telling me if you’re really here to undo the damage you’ve done, or just reporting on our status for the cowards hiding out to the south?” When one of the soldiers reacted uncomfortably, the woman laughed. “What, think we didn’t know about that? Oh, we know all about the quote, unquote ‘replacement Canterlot’ that’s being built down in Apple Corners. “And that’s the problem – you all abandoned everything! New York, LA, Chicago, Canterlot – all of it destroyed and all you did was just build little out of the way towns for people to rebuild and to let those who stayed behind suffer! What else did you abandon?” one of the others behind the woman shouted. “Why did we have to pay the price so you could all live your comfortable lives an—” “COMFORTABLE LIVES, MY ASS!” Silken snarled. “You think you’re the only ones who suffered? News flash, idiot! Ninety percent of humanity died five years ago! Explain to me how the fuck you get up and move on from that so easily, you sick son of a—” “Lieutenant, stand down,” Flash told her softly, though his tone made it clear it was an order. Still not taking his eyes off the militia folks with their guns out, he knew he had to do something. His people were trained to take down threats and even though the guerrillas had the advantage for the moment, he had the numbers. But that wasn’t the issue – no, the pressing question was that his troops were ordered to win the hearts and minds of those here, because this would be the role model of how they would take back America and probably the world. If he failed here, it could possibly – and with no hyperbole – mean the slow extinction of civilization and possibly humanity as well. His actions would decide on the future of the human race. And I don’t have my wife’s particular skills, he admitted to himself. He looked in the woman’s hard eyes…and then recollection came. It was just there for a fleeting moment, but it was there: a look he knew from long ago. In an instant, he knew who this woman was. It shocked him for just a second, but he recovered from that. He knew he could get through to her. “I’ve never abandoned anyone,” he told her, removing his helmet so she could get a good look at his face. “Whenever someone needed me, I never backed down. I even left Sunset because of others that needed me more than her. I even recall a little girl who was afraid of a large dog, and instead of letting her stay afraid, I chased the dog off, even if it bit me hard enough that I needed stitches.” He chuckled. “I also recall the little girl cried because of that.” Violet eyes opened in surprise, and then soon melted into nostalgia. A genuine look of shock came over her face. “Flash?” she asked in a choked voice. Seeing that as his cue, Flash removed his helmet. “Yes, it’s me.” The woman launched herself at him, unreservedly kissing him with unbridled passion. One of Flash’s junior officers looked at the other. “I’m not going to be the one to tell the Major about this, are you?” “Not if you want to keep on living,” came the deadpan reply. After a few minutes of quick explanation and some friendly de-escalation between the two groups they headed off towards their destination. Giddy, the woman practically clung to Flash, while he genuinely brushed it off. His subordinate officers generally said nothing but catalogued all of it later for potential jokes. “So, Flash, it’s good to see you again,” the woman said, with a heavy undertone of I’m available. Flash sighed; he knew he had to nip this in the bud. “Look, I know what you’re thinking,” he told her, “but I’m married. Happily so, too – to Fluttershy.” “A lot of people were married before Decimation,” she pointed out. “A lot of people still consider themselves so, even if their spouses didn’t survive.” “Yes, but my wife is the leader of this expedition, and she’s with the other combat group right now. She’s also the senior doctor.” The woman let go, a reluctant look on her face. “Oh, I, uh….” Time to let her off the hook. “So…this might sound awkward, but how have you been? Haven’t seen you for a while.” An unreadable look came over Silver Spoon’s face. “A lot of things. Many things I’m not proud of, too,” she told him. He said nothing, and without the prompting, she continued. “Are you sure you want to hear this?” “Are you sure you want to tell me?” he asked her in reply. “You…might not respect me after I’m done,” she told him. He gave her a smile. “We’ve known each other for years, Silvy. Unless you’ve murdered someone, you know I’m always going to be on your side.” “I….” She turned away. “I did.” Before Flash could comment, one of Silver’s people spoke up. “Hey, Janus, rule of the group, you know that! You did what you had to do.” She looked at him. “Boomshot, you know that’s why they call me Janus, right? Roman two-faced god? Betrayer, duplicitous—” “Janus was the Roman god of time, able to look forward and backwards, Silvy,” another member of her team reminded her. “You guys didn’t kill the—” The radio immediately crackled to life: “Delta Delta 6, Splash 3, do you read? Over.” He tapped the radio. “This is Delta Delta 6. Go ahead.” “We just got a report that the SEALs have engaged the enemy. Reports of casualties, and several injuries amongst the Changelings.” He barked into the radio, “Is the Major—” “She’s fine, sir. I understand she even participated in the combat herself.” What? “Splash 3, repeat your last, over.” “According to Cmdr. Apple, Maj. Fluttershy participated in the battle herself, protecting one of the downed SEALs and killing one of the enemies.” “My God,” he gasped. His mind swirled. How would his wife, normally so delicate about such things, react to having killed one of the enemies? PTSD came all too often to battle-hardened veterans; how much easier for those forced into those circumstances? He felt numb even considering the concept. “Cmdr. Apple says she has it in hand and will give you an after action, Captain.” “I’d appreciate that. But for now, I have to get on with my operation. Let her know I’ll meet with her at her earliest convenience when I get back.” “Roger that. Stay safe – we’ve already lost some SEALs and if that’s the case, well…. Splash 3, out.” “Fuck.” He looked at his senior officers and noncoms. “I take it you heard all that?” When they nodded, he said, “Okay, good, I don’t have to repeat what you guys already know I’m going to say. We’ll continue on with this, since those are our orders. Worry about the future later, take care of the now.” At his side, Silver looked at him. “That sounds all too familiar,” she said sadly. “She used to say that, too.” Flash thought about it. Silver had been friends with a girl that had been a bad influence on her. There wasn’t much Flash could do about it, but the way that Silver had said that, combined with her earlier words…. “What happened?” “Do you remember…Diamond Tiara?” I’m really not liking this, Flash thought grimly. “I do; I recall that we told you to stay away from her.” The two walked in silence for a minute before she admitted, “You were right. She was a bad apple and I should have learned. But by that time, I’d pretty much pushed all my friends away and you really didn’t have time for a kid like me.” She waved it off, however. “Don’t apologize – there’s a few years’ difference between us and it’s not like I’m your sister or anything. I get that. I just…I just wished I learned beforehand. “She was controlling. Really controlling, much like her mother – her father wasn’t, from what I could tell, but he was never really around, and so…it was a recipe for disaster. And I don’t think I was really ever her friend. Not a servant, either, but…a toy. A thing to play with, and to keep her entertained. And for a while, I fell into that step, into that role. Her only friend, even to the point that when we graduated, we really had no one to say goodbye to – it was just me and her, headed off to the University of Colorado. And that’s when things got worse.” “Worse?” She bit her lip; would he respect her still if he told her? Especially if…. “I don’t know if I should say anymore.” “You don’t have to,” Flash told her. Privately, however, he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to hear this. He’d already had the image of her as a younger child erased from his mind, especially how she’d come onto him earlier. How much more would be gone if he’d heard the rest of the tale? It was clear that something had happened between her and Diamond Tiara, and with her comment implying that she’d killed someone…. “Okay, looks like we’re here,” one of the militia personnel said, pointing to an area of the train tunnel that had been bricked off – of recent make, if Flash had to make a guess. There was dim lighting and a makeshift metal fence made of railing from within one of the trains. “Our cemetery for our dead,” one of the militia explained. “We’ve recently started burying them here, as the Octos have taken over the three cemeteries in town. Plus, with those new creatures out there, we can’t expose the non-combatants to them. At least…this way our recently passed can have a decent burial.” “Yeah, I just wish it wasn’t so close to—” another one said, then stopped. “Look, we’re nearly there and I’m sure these guys want a break, right?” Silver stated. “We need to get them in to go see the brass so that we can get this over and done with. The sooner they meet, the sooner we can save Canterlot, right?” The group nodded at that and with that, they departed the cemetery, though there were clearly questions still unspoken. A few minutes more of walking through the rails and they ended up at the Canterlot South station. “Okay, here’s where we depart; Olympus will be here shortly and if it all works out, you should meet with Zeus and Hera tonight.” “And they are?” Flash asked, but Silver shook her head. “I can’t tell you. You’re not even supposed to know my name – we’ve been given orders to not let you know our identities until both Zeus and Hera are sure that you can be trusted. I know it’s inconvenient and I’ll put in a good word for you, Flash, but…I’m sorry. This is the way it has to be.” “Don’t worry about it. I get OPSEC,” he assured her. “I…come find me after everything. Please. I need to….” She said nothing more and instead decided to walk off. Her people followed her, silently, wondering what exactly went on between her and the Army captain. “Look, Captain,” Silken began. “You don’t have to say it, Lieutenant,” he commented, knowing what she was going to say. “She was just someone I knew when I lived here in Canterlot, back when. That’s all there is to it.” “Understood, sir, but just telling you to check your six regardless, because while it might not be anything to you, remember that some of these people don’t trust us. Might just give someone with an attitude an excuse to take out his aggressions against the government on you in proxy, you know?” “Yeah, I hear you, Silky. I hear you loud and clear.” “You have no idea how right you guys are,” a new voice said as footsteps sounded. “Frankly, I don’t like the idea of working with you motherfuckers at all, especially given how you bailed out on Canterlot and God knows how many other cities in the country.” A young man walked up to Flash, hefting what looked like a well-maintained AR-15. He was backed by several others, many of which also had guns in top shape. Flash suddenly had the same feeling he did before encountering Silver, except this time the distance between him and the others was far too close – and here, they were obviously outgunned. “I’ll tell you what I told her: I’ve never abandoned anyone and I don’t intend to start now. You might hate the government – fine. I’m a part of that government, but I wasn’t the one that made those decisions, not back then and not now. You contacted us because you want people to be safe – you want your wife to be safe. I’m here to protect them, to protect anyone who needs it.” He gestured to his soldiers. “All of us share the same thoughts. We’ve all lost people, loved ones and friends, to the Octos. And we’re here to draw the line.” Button’s eyes narrowed. “Those are some words. You want to back them up?” “And how do you suggest I do that? Go storm the Octos right now without a plan of any kind? Kill myself just to appease your anger against what was done to you? You’re angry. I get that – how the government back then mishandled everything. But I was just a police officer back then; I hadn’t been pulled into the military. And in a span of days, ninety percent of humanity was killed. Wiped off the map. Denver doesn’t exist anymore. Nor does LA, New York, Miami, London, Paris or a dozen other cities I can name off the top of my head.” Eyes widened in shock and Flash continued. “We have been fighting non-stop the past few years, and every day, we lose more and more people. Humanity is on the brink of destruction and we barely can make a dent against those bastards. “So you’re not the only one that’s lost people, especially here. I’m from Canterlot as well and I don’t know if you remember me, but I remember you. And since I do, let me tell you this: I promise I will get Sweetie Belle to safety. I don’t know if I can save Canterlot, or even everyone here, but I will make sure that your wife and unborn child get to safety.” Button Mash continued to look at Flash, not sure about how he should act. Every instinct within him told him to raise his rifle and pull the trigger. The soldier said he knew him, but Button didn’t remember knowing any military jackboot type. Maybe it was in the past, and things had changed so much he couldn’t really recall any further. He really didn’t want to – his anger was just too palpable, too strong to forgive. But if I do this…I can’t protect Sweetie. That was enough to hold him back. He loved her, loved her more than his own life. And the child she carried, his own heart and soul as well. He was going to be a father, not just some dork with programming abilities and a gun. He had to make it out of here so he could teach his child that the world was going to be a better place than the one he or she would be born in. And he had to be alive to do that; moreover, she had to be taken to safety. He knew she would hate him for that, but better that than to lose her. And like it or not, it all depended on the man standing in front of him. “Fine,” Button said, slinging his rifle. “Don’t remember you, but I don’t care. But I do care about Sweetie and our baby and if you’re keeping your word, then that’s all I care about. So fine, let’s go meet with Zeus – get this shit over and done with so I can get my loved ones to safety and you can get back to saving the world or whatever the fuck it is you do.” “No need; I’m here.” Flash met face to face with a man his age. Unlike most, he looked a bit more upkept, with a dirty brown sweater, cargo pants and a tactical gear that looked like it had been taken from a military surplus store. However, it looked as though it had seen use, and the way the man stood indicated both authority and the willingness to get his hands dirty. Lastly, from the instant deference that the militia seemed to give him, there was no question as to who was in charge. Moreover, Flash recognized him…and the moment he saw him, his jaw dropped. “I thought…I thought you were gone,” he said, his voice catching. “I didn’t….” “Flash?” the man said, equally dumbfounded. “I didn’t…I mean…is it really you?” The two men looked at each other for a second before fiercely embracing each other, their eyes growing moist. “What the hell is going on?” Button asked aloud. “I think I know,” Silken replied, “but that’s up to Flash to explain.” The two men embraced each other for the longest time before pulling away, laughing in tearful joy. “The beard looks good on you,” Flash said, wiping tears from his eyes. “It’s been too long. Too damn long.” “Yeah. I didn’t expect you to go into the Army, but I guess I should’ve figured,” his counterpart said. “We lost so many cops from Decimation and the rest were pretty much shanghai’d into the military, so I should’ve known.” “It was my fault: when I found that my wife was still alive, I didn’t bother to even check to see if anyone else was. I’m sorry about that.” “Neither of us did, I suspect. I heard you said that most of humanity’s been killed off, so it was natural to think that. Don’t blame yourself – I certainly don’t blame you. Fuck, I’m just glad you’re alive!” “Me too. So you’re in charge of this place now?” “Zeus” shrugged. “Someone has to be. I mean….” He sighed. “Look, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions, right? But before any of that, I think there’s something you should see.” Completely confused as to what was going on, Button Mash figured he had enough. The Zeus he knew was always calculating, trustworthy and deserving of respect, but right now? The man acted as if he’d seen a ghost come back to life. Maybe he had…but without any answers, Button didn’t trust a single thing going on. “What the hell’s going on?” he asked. “It’s okay,” came the reply. “We can trust him. I’d trust him with my life.” “Well, I fucking don’t – and I only trust him with Sweetie’s, because he promised me he’d get her to safety. But I want some answers! How the fuck do you know you can trust this jackboot?” In response, Zeus moved right next to Flash and said, “Look at us.” It took Button Mash a few minutes, but after a few minutes his programmer’s mind took over and he realized what he was looking at. Despite Flash’s dark blue hair and that of Zeus’ blond hair and beard, they had the same features and the same eyes. “Are you fucking shitting me?” Button asked. “No, I’m not.” Zeus – better known to Flash as Blueblood – hooked a caring arm around the other man. “Why wouldn’t I trust my own brother?” he asked sincerely. “I thought you didn’t have a brother and the only family you had was Hera!” “Well, if you want to get technical, we’re half-brothers,” Flash told the younger man. “But we’ve never looked at it that way.” He then turned to Blueblood. “And who’s Hera?” “Look, I’m sure you want to get down to business, but I want to see my brother, who the hell I’m surprised is still alive, okay? And furthermore, I think you’ll want to see this. C’mon. We’ve got a slight walk ahead of us.” BUDAPEST, HUNGARY 241719AJUL30: Slowly driving through the burnt ruins of Budapest, Vytrachena Syhareta kept one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the strange gun he’d been given by the Angel. In the seat next to him, Zlata slept, somehow managing to stay asleep despite the rickety road and the hard driving they’d done over the past three days. It had been a long haul, but they’d made it past enemy checkpoints and those searching for deserters. He wasn’t a deserter – not really – but he was on a mission. Was it one given to him by God? He had no fucking clue. But he knew this much: he couldn’t give it to his government. If he did, he’d be a dead man – they’d accuse him of consorting with the enemy and execute him and probably Zlata, without a thought. Likewise, he couldn’t trust the Russians. Old hatreds ran too strong in him to trust them, even though practically everyone on Earth who was human was an ally nowadays. In his mind, that only left one group he could give it to. And so, not-really-deserting-but-yes-I-am-deserting, he commandeered an armored vehicle, enough petrol to get them where they were going and took off. He hoped he wouldn’t be questioned and by a stroke of luck or two, he’d made it as far as Hungary. But now, it looked like his luck had run out. The fires and smoke indicated that there had been a battle here recently, and though he found no sign of combatants, he was enough of a soldier that he knew that fierce fighting had gone on and that this was either a lull, or he’d wandered into the battlezone in between probing attacks. Neither was good. “Zlata,” he said giving her a gentle shove. “Get into the back.” “No, it’s not comfortable back there,” she murmured as she blinked her eyes. “Better that than dead,” he told her. “Do as I say and get back there.” She immediately caught what he meant and artlessly clambered over the seat into the armored back of the vehicle. Supposedly the Dzik-AT was the best the Ukranian military could buy, purchased from their fellow NATO counterparts in Poland. But the thing drove like shit, the vehicle rattled enough to make his teeth ache and he wasn’t sure the vehicle could survive an impact against a spitwad. But it was all that they had. Carefully, he began moving the car forward, making sure his rifle was in easy reach. At the same time, he hoped that the luck that he felt the Angel had given him would continue to hold. Not just for his sake or even the world’s, but for Zlata’s. After a few more seconds, he heard someone shout, “HALT!” and he put the car to a stop immediately. Likewise, he put his hands up, as several soldiers approached him. Even though he looked nervous, in the back of his mind, he breathed a sigh of relief. Americans, those fucking cowboys he was searching for. He would surrender to them and give them the plans. It would be the only way he could be sure that the plans would fall into the right hands. One of the soldiers knocked on his window and Syhareta rolled it down. “Ukranian military, huh? A bit out of the way for you, don’t you think?” “Maybe,” he replied coolly, “or maybe I’m on a special mission to contact your superiors,” he said in his best English. He picked it up both from school and from watching too many Hollywood movies, especially the ones with the girls with the great smiles and big tits. He was glad if there was one thing he’d paid attention to, because it at least let him speak a language he probably would have given fuck all about otherwise. “Or maybe you’re a deserter. We’ve had plenty of reports of those lately,” the sergeant said coolly. “Would you believe we caught a Belarusian the other day, trying to escape with several girls. Fucker even tried to offer them to us if we just let him go. He’s now sitting in our brig, awaiting return to his unit.” The sergeant leaned over and looked at Syhareta’s rank insignia. “Private, huh? Usually when they spend a specialist, it’s a sergeant or higher. So how can I be sure that you’re not a deserter either?” Syhareta felt a chill run down his spine. He couldn’t be stopped, not by these men. There was too much at stake. If they took him into custody, it would be all over. He had to get them to believe. “I have important information for your superiors,” he said, hopefully sounding more forceful. “Please take me to them immediately, Sergeant.” “And I should do that why, Private, uh…?” He thought about giving them his actual name. He then thought about translating his name into English for them: Spent Cigarette. Centuries worth of nanoseconds ticked by as he debated what he should do. And then, it came to him: a name, from one of the American fantasy films he saw when he was younger. Back when he’d been a budding journalist, with Kvitka at his side. Back when the world was still bright and showed promise and that fantasy film he’d watched was merely fantasy instead of an envious lifestyle he wished he could exist in, because at least it was one at relative peace compared to this. At least in that film, the good guys stood a chance of winning. “My name….” he began, then took a breath. “My name is Starswirl. Senior Soldier Starswirl, Ukranian Ground Forces. And I am on an urgent mission to meet your superiors, and I must not—” The soldier laughed. “Oh, my fucking God, we got a comedian here, guys! Starswirl! Oh, it’s an honor to meet you!” he said, sarcasm dripping in his tone. “I’m Sgt. Gandalf, and this here’s Cpl. Dumbledore. Oh, and over there’s Spc. Obi-Wan! So glad to have you in our company!” He then jammed his gun in Syhareta’s face. “I don’t take kindly to cowards who would run off and let the rest of us die to the Octos. Personally, we’ve already been given orders to shoot deserters. Fortunately for your pathetic ass, we don’t do things that way. So instead, you’re under arrest, Private, and you had better come up with a better story than that, because it’ll probably be the last one you tell before we find out who you really are and ship your ass back. Now get the fuck out of the car!” As the door pulled open and the other soldiers went to the back of the vehicle, Syhareta felt his heart sink. He had failed. He had failed Zlata. He had failed their unborn child. But most of all, he had failed the Angel…and possibly all of mankind. For the first time in his life, Vytrachena Syhareta truly felt worse than his namesake. At least that had served some sort of purpose before it was discarded. Would he even be that lucky? CANTERLOT, COLORADO 240923TJUL30: As several members of both the militia and all of Flash’s unit stood by, the two brothers were off to the side, by a trio of graves. Flash, crying once more, touched the gravestones with a mixture of emotions stewing within him. “This…this means a lot to me, Blue,” he said, his voice cracking. “You didn’t have to do this.” “Yes I did,” Blueblood replied as he patted Flash on the shoulder. “She was family, too. She deserved this and Dad would have wanted it. Moreover, my mother didn’t hate her or you, and I think she would have wanted it, too.” Flash continued to kneel at the grave of his parents: in particular, that of his mother, Scribblenote, whose final resting place had been next to the grave of his and Blueblood’s father, Due Process, the man who had been governor of Colorado when all hell had broken out. On the other side of the pair was Blueblood’s own mother, Sterling Rose, who had been Process’ wife and had known about his mistress. Despite being the son of an illegitimate relationship, Flash had a decent enough life and he’d known not only his father’s love, but that of a brother as well. And for all his faults, Flash had loved his father, too. And now the trio were buried here in a small plot of land overlooking the ruins of what had been the governor’s mansion. Despite their father’s faults, Blueblood said, he’d been a believer in government and so it was only appropriate that he would be buried here, amongst the two women that had been the loves of his life. “I remember Dad used to joke that he wished he was Utah’s governor instead of our state, so he could marry your mom, too,” Blueblood commented. “He loved her just as much as he loved mine and to this day I’m surprised that my mother was able to tolerate it. I never asked her why, but I think it was because of you. That divorce, or an ultimatum of some sort, would have meant that you would have suffered. And even though we went to different schools, she knew that we were close enough that she didn’t want to drive something between us.” Flash looked over at the grave of Blueblood’s mother. She had done something for him, even though he would never understand why. And now, he had to make up for it, not just for his sake or his brothers, but in her memory – because she’d been wise enough to spare him a broken home when the common sense of the time would have said otherwise. “Do you know what happened to the rest of my family?” Flash asked. “For the most part, no. I know your maternal grandparents lived in Denver, and from what I overheard you tell Button, it’s gone. As for the others, well….” He was silent, stroking his beard in thought. “I don’t even know if your wife is still alive.” “Flutters is okay. In fact, she’s not only a doctor, but she’s now in charge of this whole operation.” “Now that is impressive. I always knew she was a smart woman, but to be able to take charge of all this is just amazing. You got lucky, you know?” “Yeah, tell me about it,” Flash commented. He didn’t want to add further, because even though they were a distance away, he still didn’t want to have his troops hear about it. The orders Col. Spearhead had given him were still in effect, after all. “One thing I do want to know is what happens now,” Blueblood asked him. “I don’t know where you stand right now, but as for me…Canterlot is our home. I want to fight for it. I might not really hold authority here, not in any official capacity, but the people know and trust me and follow. I want to back their play, whatever it is, but this I already know: this city, even in the condition it’s in? It’s home to us, no matter what. This is what they want to keep.” “Well, we should probably discuss this in a safer location. This is still a beautiful place, but a little too out in the open for my tastes.” “Yeah, I don’t disagree. Anyway, we can head back to my place and discuss anything further there,” Blueblood offered. “Besides, there’s someone you’ll want to see: my wife.” “Wait – you got married?” Flash said with surprise. “What? It happens.” As a response, Flash slugged him in the shoulder playfully. “What happened to the so-called ‘lifetime playboy’ that dated hotties like Sparkleberry Shine and Razzmatazz? I mean, hell, just before this all went down, weren’t you dating a pair of lesbians?” Blueblood shook his head and chuckled. “Look, Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch were bisexual, not lesbian,” the bearded man said in a mock-scholarly tone. “Besides, that relationship went south fast when I found out the only reason they were, ahem, ‘interested’ in me was because they wanted children of their own and while they were more than willing for a sperm donor, they didn’t want much beyond that. I told them if I was going to be a father, I was going to actually be a father, and that was something neither of them wanted. We split on good terms and I hope they survived when they moved to Cloudsdale, but I don’t know beyond that.” “So, tell me, who was the kind of woman that managed to tie down Blueblood’s heart, man? I’m all ears.” Blueblood’s smile turned wolfish. “Oh, trust me, bro, I’m sure you’ll be as surprised to see her as she will be to see you.” > Face to Face > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CANTERLOT, COLORADO 240941TJUL30: True to his brother’s words, surprise turned out to be the understatement of the century. “You have got to be shitting me.” He turned to look at Blueblood, then Blueblood’s wife, and then finally back to his brother. Blueblood, to his credit, merely nodded. “It’s a long, long story, Flash,” he admitted. “A long story? You’re sleeping with our aunt!” he cried. Seated in her wheelchair, Luna looked at Flash. “Well, if you want to get technical, I’m only biologically related to you, Flash. Not to Blue.” “The law doesn’t work that way, Luna,” he told her. Unconcerned, she looked defiantly at her nephew. “Well, given that Canterlot has been on its own since it was abandoned, I’d honestly say fuck the law,” she spat. “They didn’t give a shit about anyone here, so why should I give a fuck about what anyone else thinks? And just where is the state capitol nowadays? Clearly it’s not here anymore!” “We should discuss this later,” Blueblood told her softly, as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We have a lot more at stake here other than an awkward family reunion.” “No. We’re getting this over and done now because we need to,” she replied. “If we’re going to get help, I don’t need Flash to sit there forever and stew in his mind whether you’re now his uncle or I’m his sister-in-law. And I know you will, Flash – it’s what you do.” She gestured to the table. “Please, sit. I know you have a lot of questions and we’ll try to answer them.” “Fine,” he said, sitting down at the table. After that, time bled on while both sides exchanged information of what had happened. For Luna, she had come to terms that her parents, who had lived upstate in Denver, had not survived. Likewise, he’d found out that Celestia likely had not survived the attack – no one had ever found her body. That especially felt like a blow to Flash: because of the difference in age between his mother and her twin sisters, both Celestia and Luna had been more like older sisters to him than actual aunts, so much so that it had been a brief issue when he became a student at the high school both taught at. “And while I’m glad that Fluttershy made it out of the school alive, no one had bothered to check the building for survivors. There wasn’t time, and everyone was running for their lives – but meanwhile, I was in endless pain, because a rebar had pretty much punched right through me and at the time, I couldn’t move. I thought I was going to die right then and there, bleed out or something, but somehow, by some miracle, I managed to survive until some scavengers found me, on the verge of death. “They managed to get me to a refugee camp in Leadville, but by then, the damage had been done. My spine had been shattered and I’d been in that condition for nearly two weeks. The doctors did everything they could to try to save my life…but by that point, it was over, if you understand what I mean.” She nervously fumbled at her braid as she recalled everything, and though she had long moved past the tears, Flash could see the pain in her eyes like it was yesterday. “I was utterly destroyed; a waste of a human body! Completely crippled by the attack and left for dead! At one point the doctors said I was even in a coma. You know what my life was like before this all happened, and then imagine it all taken away!” Flash didn’t have to think hard to recall. Both Celestia and Luna had shown him their hobbies and had inspired him as teachers and older sister figures did; in particular, it had been Luna’s love of the arts that had inspired him to be a musician, even though he ultimately chose the life of a police officer. So for her to lose all that? He remembered the pain of feeling everything he’d feared he’d lost, then letting it wash over him when he found Fluttershy alive. But the ache of losing all his loved ones never went away when he joined the Army and went south for officer training in Arizona. Luna had never had that closure. Unaware of her nephew’s train of thought, Luna continued. “Everything I was, was gone: I used to write, hike, paint and do so many things, and then I was suddenly reduced to a point where moving my neck was a monumental effort that wore me out. I had lost everyone I loved – I didn’t even know if you or Fluttershy were alive and to this day I still have no confirmation if Tia is, either. And in those days, I wasn’t looked at as Canterlot High’s principal, or the art and drama teacher – I was looked at as a drain, a waste on the dwindling resources and not worth keeping alive. “So when it came time for the Army to pull out and for those that insisted they would stay behind and try to fight the aliens no matter what…I asked that I be left behind. Not to fight – I certainly couldn’t do that and I didn’t have the fencing and epée training that Tia did. No, I asked to stay behind so that I could die, preferably in the ruins of my old school, where my remains could fertilize the soil and I could be of some use to someone.” She then hooked a thumb at Blueblood. “And then that’s when he came into the picture.” “I already told you how I felt,” Blueblood told his brother. “I wasn’t going to run – Canterlot’s my home and as the son of the governor, I felt I had a responsibility to help however I could. I didn’t have access to the money I used to, but I didn’t need that – I needed to be there for them. And when I came across her, I remembered who she was and how everyone was just so willing to let her die, alone and unloved. I couldn’t let that happen. So I went over and took her in, despite all the glares and jeers I got.” He gave a soft smile. “As far as I was concerned, she was family – family doesn’t run out on one another.” He slumped in the seat next to her. “But it was no walk in the park, let me tell you. Between trying to fight the Octos with everything you and Dad had taught me about guns and stuff – and that sure as hell wasn’t easy; I always took after my mother and her socialite ways rather than Dad and his hunting, rugged survivalist Republican attitude – and then coming home, completely exhausted, to care for a woman who couldn’t feed herself, couldn’t wash herself, couldn’t, ah….” Luna chuckled. “I was quadriplegic, love. I think Flash can figure out what I couldn’t do.” She waved the topic off, adding, “Try being a woman in your late forties being reduced to the existence of a baby and…well, it wasn’t easy, for either of us.” Blueblood continued again. “Thankfully, I had some help, some people who remembered who she was and who came and did everything they could to help her. I especially owe Button and Sweetie, because they were instrumental in helping me convince people that Luna was a person, that she was someone to respect and admire and someone who could help beat back the Octos, if they gave her a chance. And little by little, everyone came around. I have to admit, I broke down in tears when a group found a working quadriplegic wheelchair for her.” “I broke down in tears myself when Bulk Biceps started working with me every day to try to get me to move something besides my head. And it took about a year – one painful, grueling, agonizing year in which I broke down crying so many Goddamn times because I didn’t think I could do it…and then one day, I did. I would have jumped for joy if I could, but it meant that I wasn’t useless anymore.” “You weren’t. All this time, you were helping us with plans, logistics, supplies. You couldn’t do it physically, but you got into a mindset that forced people to listen. All those years of teaching paid off, though not in the way you intended,” Blueblood reminded her before turning back to his brother again. “By the time we’d been here a year, they’d gotten used to me taking charge and pretty much made me the leader. And because Luna had been so instrumental in helping us achieve those early victories, by the end of that harrowing year, no one dared to even suggest that she be tossed aside.” “That’s good, but that still doesn’t—” “I seduced him,” Luna said flatly. When Flash looked at her oddly, she grinned and leaned back in her wheelchair. “Flash, you might see me as your aunt and older sister figure, but let’s get something straight: I’m a woman, too. I have feelings, needs and wants. And one of the things I realized after I’d been crippled how much I – well, to be honest, both Tia and I – had missed out on life. I busted my ass as a teacher so I could be principal, and she had done just as much the same. And when I became principal of CHS and Tia had become one of the district assistant superintendents, it never occurred to me that I was pushing my mid-forties and hadn’t even dated, much less anything else. You remember that movie from way back? The Forty-Year-Old Virgin? That was me, in spades. “Now, fast forward a year of everything I’d been through, and there was a man in my life who had seen me at my weakest and my most vulnerable. One who had bathed me, fed me, changed my adult diapers. I had long gotten over my embarrassment of that, and he had gone from merely looking good to the muscular hunk you see now.” She smiled. “So, when my birthday came up, he asked me what I wanted, and I was rather frank. And believe me, he balked.” “Balked?” Blueblood laughed. “I panicked. I mean, here was this woman, well older than me, coming onto me and to boot, she’s my brother’s aunt? Who wouldn’t freak? But after that, I thought about it. I mean, we’d been living together for a year and she’d been a more stable companion than any girlfriend I ever had before. And, because she’d been working out, she looked good, even despite everything.” “The fact that the women in our family age gracefully helps,” she said with a grin. “I mean, let’s be honest: I’m fifty-one and I don’t look much older than either of you. So anyway, that night, over dinner, we talked…and then I leaned forward and kissed him. And to my surprise, he kissed back. One thing led to another and…well, let’s say we really didn’t get to have dinner.” “Look, I was afraid that I was going to hurt you because we—” She reached over and caressed his face. “It would have been worth it. And besides, I knew you would never hurt me. You were gentler than I expected.” Flash suddenly felt awkward. “Uh, could we just move on to the next part? This is getting awkward for me.” “Imagine what we had to go through. It took a while for everyone to get over that, because Blueblood had been telling them for so long that I was family and pretty much insinuating that I was his aunt that when people finally realized we were lovers, well…they pretty much had the same reaction as you, to be honest. But love is what love is, Flash. I have a husband and this isn’t the life I pictured by any means, but I don’t ever want to give it up.” Flash was silent for the longest time and said nothing. What could he say? This wasn’t the same world he’d lived in years ago. Back then, probably both of them would have ended up behind bars for this. But this was a world that couldn’t afford bars or people behind them. And, as weird as it felt, given that most of humanity had been murdered…he wouldn’t be surprised if there were more “awkward” relationships. Taboos only stood if there were people to stand for them, and as much as it bothered him…he loved them both and he wanted them to be happy. “I honestly don’t know what to say…but I don’t think it’s my place to,” he finally confessed. “Then say you’ll be happy for us, and that’s all that matters,” was Blueblood’s response. But he shook his head. “No. What matters is saving Canterlot, so that you two have a place to raise your children. So that people can have a future.” He got up from his seat. “I need to get a hold of Flutters and tell her that I made contact with you. Then we need to start moving your heavily wounded to the hospital she’s got set up at the Mars Junction station. And after that’s a whole bunch of other things.” “Look, I know this sounds petulant, but can it wait until tomorrow? The battle plans, that is. I want to spend time with family, now that I have them for the first time in ages,” Luna told him. “I’ve missed both you and Flutters and I’m sure we can spare the time.” “I’ll ask her. There’s a lot that you don’t know about that’s going on,” Flash told them. “We’re not just here to free Canterlot. We’re also here because….” He pursed his lips, stopping the words that he had nearly uttered. He knew that Luna knew about Sunset and everything that had happened, but did Blueblood? From what he remembered, Sunset had once said that alien princess girl – Twilight – had cast a spell so that only those at Canterlot High would know the truth. And that had certainly been the case: the incident with those other alien girls – the Dazzlings, if he recalled their name – was written off as a special effects firework display. The incident with Crystal Prep was explained as a hallucination caused by some girl from that school messing with chemicals after that school’s principal had pushed her too far. And no one had, to his knowledge, ever found out what happened at Camp Everfree. So clearly the spell had held. But did it hold now, with the portal long closed and the Octos invading? Could they have done something? Luna looked at him evenly. “It’s about Sunset, isn’t it? No – don’t answer. I know it has to be.” Luna then seemed to deflate at that realization. “What happened to her…Tia and I blamed both of us. We knew she was innocent, but we also felt it was best to let the student body handle it, because of everything she’d done in the past. Plus, we had to be careful in case we were wrong and she actually was guilty. But by the time the truth came out, it was far too late.” Blueblood looked at them both. “Am I missing something?” “It’s going to take a long time to explain,” Flash said, “and if you think your relationship with Luna made me weird out, I’m about to beat your news – in spades.” UNKNOWN 24JUL30: In her sanctum sanctorum, the Queen did a couple of repetitions with the weights as music pumped into the isolated room. The “room”, such as it was, was in truth a bunch of welded cargo containers that served as one of her hideouts in the world; she had more than a few of those, and the better in order to protect humanity. For a change, she was in normal clothing, if one could call workout attire that. Her final repetition done, she rested the weight on the bar, just as a beep sounded across the room. Getting up, she walked over to a small table where the radio, her gear and a few other things were…including the hardened laptop that was sending a prearranged signal. Bending over slightly, she tapped in a response, waiting for further status. $ $ COPY GIDEON “HASSENFELD CMptBMU6mvmNDcW47LZOj9Mk0iD8wnS2”::CRYSTALLIA.REL CRYSTALLIA.REL $ TYPE CRYSTALLIA.REL =FOUREYES ONLY= INDEX EVENT 3QN-A::4-DBS SUMMARY OF INCIDENTS FOLLOWS: She read the information, her eyes scanning over all the data she needed. A lot of it was extraneous, but that was to be expected – she had her own way of doing things and she wasn’t a trained professional, despite what people thought about her. Realizing this was going to be a long report, she finally sat down, briefly reaching over to press a button on the wall and grab a water. This was going to take a while and she needed to eat something, given that actual time to eat was a luxury she could rarely afford. She spent several minutes poking through the various reports before something finally caught her eye: C1: PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN. ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS. THIS IS MV LUCKY BREAKER. WE HAVE A POSSIBLE RIP EVENT IN PROGRESS AT OUR LOCATION. REQUEST IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE WITH ANY AVAIL MILITARY ACCESS. COORDINATES FOLLOW. [STATIC FOLLOWS] C2: MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS, ALL STATIONS! THIS IS MV LUCKY BREAKER. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! OUR HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED AND WE ARE TAKING ON WATER. MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! THIS IS MV LUCKY BREAKER. WILL SOMEONE RESPOND? [STATIC FOLLOWS] C3: FLASH NOTICE, FLASH NOTICE, FLASH NOTICE. THIS IS HMS DARING, CTF-192. HEAVY OTHER PRESENCE NOTED. WE ARE TAKING FIRE AND RETURNING [STATIC]. MV LUCKY BREAKER HAS BEEN DESTROYED, REPEAT, MV LUCKY BREAKER HAS BEEN DESTROYED. C4: HMS DARING, THIS IS BLUE SOPRANO 01, INBOUND. PLEASE IDENTIFY ALL BANDITS, OVER. C5: [UNINTELLIGIBLE STATIC] C6: ALL STATIONS, THIS IS BLUE SOPRANO 01, ENGAGING. NOTIFY CTF-803 FOR ASSISTANCE, OVER. A soft chime sounded at her side, and on automatic, she opened a drawer and pulled out a heated cup of noodles. She’d picked up a bunch of them the last time she was in Malaysia, and they were quick and dubiously healthy. She knew that she’d probably be yelled at if someone saw her eating habits, but life wasn’t what it used to be. Picking up a pair of disposable chopsticks, she began to munch on what would pass for her dinner while she continued to read report. C7: IT’S THE QUEEN! IT HAS TO BE! BLOODY FUCKIN’ A! C8: CUT THE CHATTER AND CLEAR THE LINE. CTF-803, RFS SLAVA REPORTING. BLUE SOPRANO 01, STATUS. C9: ALL UNITS, THIS IS BLUE SOPRANO 01. SKYSHOCK, SKYSHOCK, SKYSHOCK. I REPEAT, SKYSHOCK, SKYSHOCK, SKYSHOCK. C10: [UNINTELLIGIBLE][SCREAMING][UNINTELLIGBLE] She winced at the memory. Five ships lost because she hadn’t been fast enough to shoot down the Octo ship. The MV Lucky Breaker had been lost with all hands, and the RFS Slava was down as well as the British, French, Iranian and Italian ships escorting her. Thankfully survivors had been picked up thanks to other ships being in the area, but she hadn’t been fast enough. She wasn’t omnipotent and couldn’t be everywhere in the world, she knew. The Queen of Knives had her limits, even if the world thought of her as a limitless guardian angel. It wasn’t true. She tossed the remainder of her half-eaten food in the waste container. It would do its job and recycle the items and she could cook later. Right now the food just tasted like ash in her mouth when she recalled the screams of the sailors lost because she hadn’t been fast enough. EVENT 3QN-A::4-DBS $ Q $ ARCHIVE CRYSTALLIA.REL;*.* She got up and walked across the room towards the cot where she could get some sleep. Hopefully she wouldn’t have nightmares again tonight. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 241106TJUL30: Blueblood looked at his brother after the latter’s long tale. “I…see.” He then turned to Luna. “And you knew about this?” She nodded. “Everyone at Canterlot High did, though they’ve pledged to keep it a secret. And after Sunset…vanished, I thought it was something that we just simply couldn’t discuss. But if she’s back—” “We don’t know if she is or isn’t. But the Mountain is putting heavy firepower behind this to see if we can find out if she’s still alive and if she’s the queen. Applejack seems to think she is, and she’s the one that’s the lynchpin of this whole thing – both her and Flutters. All I know is that the portal at CHS may still be there; and furthermore, the journal that she used to use to contact Equestria is at Fluttershy’s parents’ old home.” “And you didn’t think to bring it with you?” “Flutters said that she thought it would be safest at her parents’ place in the attic with her old stuff; besides, we couldn’t fit everything in our apartment. Plus, given that her old home may still be standing and our apartment was completely razed based on the satellite imagery, I would say that was a smart move. Applejack’s going to make the move out there while we’ll be handling the evacuation of Canterlot, or whatever needs to be done. Optimally, I would personally prefer to help you guys recapture this place, but that will ultimately be up to Applejack, as she’s the combatant commander on-site.” Blueblood rubbed his chin. “Do you think she can be reasoned with?” “She’ll be reasonable about it. She’s a SEAL and she’s been in worse fighting than I have – just before we got here, they had a battle with some of the aliens already, so I know she’s already formulating ideas. Plus, we also have a CIA special activities group with us, so we’re already getting the lay of the land. We don’t know what’s the situation for the northern and westernmost sections of Canterlot, but we’re hoping that we can trade information and that should give us the advantage we need.” “We haven’t been able to do much in those areas since it’s overrun with that coral-like structure the Octos use,” Blueblood told him, “but I’ll have my intelligence folks give you everything we have. We’ll take our home back, one way or another.” “Good, that’s what I want to hear.” Flash got up from his chair. “Now, I need to get a hold of our command post and update them on the situation. I’ll need you to gather up your most wounded and sick, because I’d like to get them to the CSH.” Blueblood nodded. “I’ll take you to our communications room. It’s well-protected and we’ve been able to make contact with the outside there. It shouldn’t be a problem for you to make contact from that point.” MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 241137TJUL30: “Are you sure about that, Flash?” “No, but I can’t just rush back there and worry about you. You could’ve been killed, Flutters!” Fluttershy sighed; she knew the minute her husband had found out what happened, he would freak out. Part of her still wanted him to come back posthaste, but she was in overall command – she couldn’t afford to do that. Moreover, now that Flash had made contact with the other side, she needed to keep her wits about her in order to be an effective soldier and leader. And those are words I never thought I would have ever referred to myself as, she mused. “Flash, just…sit tight for now. We need to plan everything on this end on how we’re going to use the vehicles we have for ambulance purposes; likewise, we’re going to need accurate numbers on how much medical support they need – not just combatants, but everyone, from the child with cholic to the man who might need to have his leg amputated. I need all that data. Likewise, AJ and Chrysalis need to plan out some things, and with the Changelings all currently out of action from this morning’s incident, it’s all the more important that we have a plan in case things go south quickly.” “I get that, I’m just worried about you.” “And I’m not worried about you at all. Now that I know you’re with family and safe, I can rest easier and do my job. And believe me, there’s a lot I need to do.” “Fine, I’ll liaise with the rest of Blue’s people and find out what I need to get to you. But…you stay out of trouble, okay? I mean that.” “No promises, Captain,” she told him. “I do what I have to do.” “And if I’m talking to my wife instead of my superior officer?” “I’ll do my best, Flash. You know that.” “Best I can ask for then. I’ll see you tomorrow. Delta Delta 6, out.” “Romeo Alpha 6, out.” With that, she reluctantly put the headphones down. She wanted to run into his arms and cry; needless to say, there were so many more things she could tell him that she couldn’t even tell Applejack, much less the rest of her friends. But the mission came first – she knew that, and even though she really didn’t want to do that, the fate of countless lives depended on her doing the right thing. “You okay?” She turned to see Applejack approaching her. “Not really, no, but I don’t get that luxury anymore. It’s not like I’m the little girl who used to be able to hide behind her friends anymore. I have to take responsibility, because lives depend on me. And if it means I have to risk my husband, those are my orders.” “I know that’s not easy.” “You’re right; it’s not. Now, grab your senior cadre and I’ll grab mine and I’ll explain what’s going down. It’s going to be…” Fluttershy sighed, then rubbed her temples, feeling a billion years old at the moment. “Heavy is the brow that wears the crown, I guess. Let’s just say I’m going to be putting a lot of people in harm’s way and I don’t like it one fucking bit, AJ.” > Holes in Hearts > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RAF LINTON-ON-OUSE, UNITED KINGDOM 250009ZJUL30: The room was cleaner than anything he’d seen in years, “Starswirl” mused. Certainly cleaner than the shitholes that had been his life since Decimation. It was, from floor to ceiling, pure endless and unadulterated white – so blinding that he briefly wondered if this was some sort of new, unique torture that the Americans had developed. It was certainly possible, but he was also sure that once they saw what he’d brought them, they’d deal in good faith – they had no idea what else he had, even if he didn’t have anything else. After all, what he did have was enough to get him and Zlata out of Hungary and onto a US aircraft. They’d both been blindfolded and separated, but as far as he could tell, they were treating him with kid gloves. He’d read the tales of what happened when the US military got out of hand and while they certainly weren’t as rough as his own forces, military personnel with ideas of sadism and a penchant for hurting things tended to get creative in the way many people didn’t appreciate. And in today’s desperate times, there were a lot of “creative” individuals out there. As for now, he sat on a white plastic chair in the featureless room, wearing an equally luminescent white jumper the soldiers had given him, bored as hell and waiting for whatever came next. Right now, he could use a smoke, a drink, a fuck and then maybe cuddling with his Zlata afterwards. He knew he was probably going to have to give up the former, and those last two were part of how he’d gotten into this whole mess in the first place. Besides, he had promised himself if Zlata gave birth to a girl, he would make sure she would never date the kind of man he was, so like it or not, he would have to be one of those squeaky-clean dads they used to show on television when he was a kid. Just then the door opened and two people came in: a young woman with piercing purple eyes and purple-and-teal hair pulled back into a braid; she wore a military uniform that bore no rank, unit identification or even her name. Next to her was a severe-looking middle-aged man wearing a well-tailored suit – and that was more than enough to tell Syhareta exactly who he was dealing with: The woman was obviously military intelligence. The man? CIA. The woman sat down in front of him, pulled out a tablet and looked at him. «Good afternoon, Sr. Soldier Syhareta.» The woman gave an impish smile. «Or do you still plan to go by ‘Starswirl’?» He gave her an odd look and she smiled once more. «While we’re told your English is commendable, we thought you would feel more at ease talking in your native language.» He sat back in his chair, surprised. «I…uh, appreciate that.» The woman nodded. «Good to know. In any case, I’m an intelligence analyst with the Office of Naval Intelligence. You may call me Gleam. This man here is ah, Mr., ah…Pineapple?» The other man nodded briefly and the woman continued. «Yes. Mr. Pineapple. Anyway, he is here from a…let’s just call it a ‘concerned party’ and leave it at that.» «I know the CIA when I see it,» Syhareta commented. «That’s good to know, because I can tell you that Mr. Pineapple is not CIA. Can’t tell you anything beyond that, but I can tell you that much.» “Pineapple” looked at Syhareta, holding the disc the angel had given to him. “Explain how you got this,” he said. «You can explain in English or Ukranian. We don’t mind,» the woman added helpfully. Syhareta went over everything in detail, pointing out things he hadn’t told his earlier captors. Things he hadn’t even told Zlata. He only knew that he had to say something, to get the angel’s words out. She had saved him for this moment – she needed him to get the world to pay attention so she could do more to save them. The brilliant angel from beyond had reached out to a sinner like him to be a saint. He could do nothing less. “We tried, you know. We tried to have our people fire that strange gun you brought in,” Pineapple said. “Hell, we couldn’t even turn off the safety. It’s like the entire gun is set for your biometric pattern and yours only. Then that became clear from the schematics. It even shows how to turn it off on other guns…but curiously, not on yours.” «The angel said that gun would be mine and only mine,» Syhareta stated by way of apology. «I have done as she asked. I only now ask that you protect my wife, for she is pregnant. You may do with me as you wish.» He hadn’t planned to say that last part; it was pretty much an admission that he was a deserter and some of his countrymen would even consider him a traitor, given the situation. They would feel the gun should be for the Ukraine’s glory, to give their nation an edge against the world once the war ended. But Syhareta wasn’t stupid. The plans had to go to a nation that would be able to produce the weapon in enough numbers to turn the tide, or else there might not be a world for anyone to gain an edge. Gleam and Pineapple looked at one another, and then back to him. «I have…sobering news for you. As of two hours ago, the last known unit of the Ukranian Ground Forces fell. Russian forces were able to push back the Octos before they could destroy Chernobyl, but they are reporting a complete loss of ground forces. The unit that had been there, the last of the Ukraine’s known forces…have been wiped out. I’m sorry, Sr. Soldier Syhareta…Mr. Syhareta. You no longer have a nation to go back to.» Syhareta’s jaw hit the floor. As someone who had been forced to join the army, he had hated it…but in the end, had found camaraderie within. He had wasted his life on drink and Zlata’s thighs…until she had become more important to him than anything else. The angel had changed that for him, had saved him when so many others of his countrymen had died. And now they were gone and he and she were all that were left. He wanted to feel something – rage, sorrow, shame. But he couldn’t. It wasn’t as though he had just heard something that was of no importance to him; he didn’t feel that way and even if he did, he knew Zlata wouldn’t. But something in him had changed, and the land he had come from was no longer a part of his life, as if he had climbed over the old Berlin Wall when it still existed, now and forever to be an exile to the west. Though he had joked about it, it turned out that he was more like Starswirl from the old novels and movies – an exile from his old lands, bearing incredible power, destined to fight against a terrible force determined to snuff out the world. The writer he used to be would have laughed, taken another shot of vodka and then continued on with his work. The soldier that he was now could see the symbolism in a way that he couldn’t so long ago. Pineapple looked at him. “You have two choices. The first is that you return to the Ukraine. The Russians have set up a temporary government and you will likely be working with them until either the Ukraine can stand up once more—” “Or until Russia annexes my homeland again,” he said in English. “I remember what happened back in 2019, and the only reason it didn’t happen in full is because of Decimation. And now the Russians get it by default.” “The other option,” Pineapple stated, “is that because you brought us the plans, the United States government is willing to offer you and your wife asylum. Perhaps in another time, we would have called it defection, but you can hardly run from a country that no longer exists, can you? In return for working for the US government, we will set up you and your family to live in the United States.” “My grandparents were KGB defectors back in the 80s,” Gleam admitted; as proof, she pulled out a Russian medal; the cloisonne green-and-red enamel shone in the light. “This was my grandmother’s Excellent Border Troop 1st Class medal. It, and my grandfather’s matching medal, were the only things they brought with them when they crossed over the West Berlin checkpoint in 1981. Obviously it was a whole bunch of different circumstances there – the world was nearly at war with itself rather than an actual war from without – but the same courage and sacrifice existed. And they chose to make that call for the sake of the world and the sake of the son and daughter they would have. A choice that in the end, led down to me. “I consider myself incredibly lucky to be both American and of Russian descent. I am lucky that my grandparents’ decisions informed my father’s choice to join the Marine Corps, and ultimately, mine to join the Navy. And I am grateful that they loved us – even when we didn’t exist back then – to make the difficult choice to continue to their new world, even without knowing how they would fare. And while I’m no clairvoyant, I think that someday your grandchild just might feel the same way I do.” She gave him an earnest smile. “The choice, of course, is yours.” “If I may…what happened to your grandparents?” Gleam smiled widely. “Thankfully, they both survived Decimation. They both wanted to gun up and join the US military, but even they know they’re too old. So instead, thanks to some connections they had, they run the USO office at New Chicago Airport in Gary, Indiana, making sure that US and Canadian troops can contribute to the fight. They might be old and gray, but they’re not the kind that give up that easily,” she said with a laugh. Syhareta thought about it for a grand total of two seconds. There was, of course, no point in thinking about it. The choice, after all, wasn’t his. It wasn’t Zlata’s. In the end, the choice was for his unborn child – and the ones that would come after. “Will we be given new identities?” he asked, the die cast. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 241821TJUL30: To label the central station of Canterlot ornate was, Applejack mused, like calling an aircraft carrier big – the word didn’t quite explain the whole of what you were seeing. Based roughly after the great European subway stations, Canterlot Central was more like a museum than a metropolitan transport center, offering some of the most beautiful sights to be seen in this part of the Rockies. Featuring white marble walls, a ballroom ceiling, chandeliers with warm lighting, ornate glass pillars and a massive mosaic mural dedicated to the sons of Canterlot who fought during WWII, it was often considered one of the most beautiful stations in the US, if not the world. It had been built in 1908 as a overexpensive boondoggle by the then-mayor of Canterlot, trying to keep the capital of Colorado in Canterlot when many people wanted it to be moved to Denver. The “world-class eyesore”, as many Denver newspapers of the time put it, worked and was instrumental in keeping the state capital in Canterlot. At least until Decimation, she noted as she walked through the area, though Tammany Hall got his wish: since Denver didn’t survive Decimation either, it didn’t get to become the capitol when Canterlot fell. She looked around and saw the station, once grand and glorious, now reduced to a shell of itself. While the place still stood, beautiful and ornate, its luster was marred by the various equipment, supplies, emergency cots and various other things of life as the war continued. Beauty only held reality in place for so long, and in the end, ugliness always won. “You know, I remember reading about this in my high school art class,” Tempest told Applejack. “Saw a few pictures but didn’t think it was this ornate.” Fluttershy laughed. “Speaking of pictures, did you know that during a short period in 1967 it was illegal to take pictures in here? The mayor at the time was running for governor and was hoping to win the Most Beautiful City in America award that year as a hope of boosting his chances of winning the election. Well, he didn’t want anyone to steal ideas from the station, so he made it illegal. Eventually, some hippies got the idea and came down and started taking pictures in droves; the police ended up writing dozens and dozens of tickets, but it didn’t matter. Eventually, the city lost the award to Salt Lake City that year and with it went the mayor’s political ambitions. Soon after, he lost his reelection for mayor to the first female mayor of the city and the first thing she did was to repeal the unpopular law.” The woman smirked. “That’s why the Counterculture Garden, an avant-garde statuary just outside the station at the Starbloom Ave. entrance, is dedicated to her.” Tempest shook her head. “Weird as hell.” Applejack spotted a number of familiar and some unfamiliar people in the distance, walking towards them. “Okay, game faces, people,” she said. At that order, the SEALs went into a ready mode, looking somewhat relaxed yet prepared to gun up at a moment’s notice. As they approached the oncoming group, Flash waved to them. “Everything’s safe. They’ve locked down the place here and there’s been zero signs of Octo intrusions. If they know this place is here, they clearly don’t think it’s important enough to attack,” he told the others. “And with that, I think more than a few introductions – and reintroductions – are in order.” As old acquaintances were rekindled, friendships remade and new alliances forged, Applejack looked around for a particular face. The face would look different, sure, but she knew her sister. And if there was any chance that Apple Bloom was alive, she had to do something about it. Their family needed to heal itself and the only way to do that was to bring Apple Bloom home, even if only for a little while. “Something up, Cmdr. Apple?” one of the guys, whose name she couldn’t recall, asked. “Yeah. I’m looking for my sister, Apple Bloom. I understand she’s the senior engineer here and I thought that she would be part of the welcome team, given her seniority.” Before the man could speak, Luna said, “I’ll handle this, Quartzheart.” As the man deferred to her, Luna looked at Applejack, eye to eye. “Things have changed, Jackie,” the older woman stated. “I know you know that more than anyone, but the women that were once the girls of the Canterlot Movie Club are far different than what you remember. I know that you left home under…less than pleasant circumstances, and I know that Bloom did the same. You both went in the same general direction but took far different paths. And the path that she’s chosen to take means that she might not be ready to see you anytime soon.” “I understand that, Luna, but I promised my brother that I would try to get her to go home, if only to heal family rifts that are long overdue. Does she know that she has a sister-in-law now? A niece and a nephew? That Mac’s eternally regretted the fight that sent her away from home?” The SEAL rubbed her temples. “It was hard enough for me to find the courage to come home and to be honest, I was willing to die alone somewhere in a forgotten place rather than do it. Now? I wish I had done it sooner. And I want to tell my sister that I still love her before it’s too late.” “I’ll talk to her as soon as I can,” Luna promised, “but I can’t guarantee anything.” “I appreciate the offer.” “You’re risking your life to bring Canterlot back from the ashes. It’s the least I can do.” RAF LINTON-ON-OUSE, UNITED KINGDOM 250602ZJUL30: “Mr. Pineapple” sat in the waiting room by the tarmac, watching as the aircrew prepped the C-37A for return to the US. At the moment, he drank from a cup of coffee, feeling rumpled and spent. He was too old for this sort of thing, and if the world had taken a different path, likely he would have put in his retirement papers by now. In fact, he could see himself now, just puttering around the house like a retired old git with nothing better to do with his life while his wife, the mayor of the town they lived in, wreaked administrative havoc on the forces of paperwork. She was just like that, and part of the reason why he loved her so. “A tired man is what I see,” a voice said, “whose endless work keeps us all free.” He looked up and saw a familiar face, equally lined with the cares of worry and metaphorical mileage. He also remembered the face when they were both younger: honey-dark skin, expressive cyan eyes and salt-and-pepper hair that she’d had her entire life. To him, she was still beautiful, even if he’d married someone else and her life had gone in a different direction. Another part of that “if the world had taken a different path,” he mused. “Well, I was wondering when you would show up,” he said with a grin. She sat down in the chair next to him. “The infamous Black Plant expects a call, when I might not even be there at all?” she laughed. “Perhaps you forget – intentionally so? – that for King and Country I often go.” Firelight, GEN, USMC, better known as “Black Plant” to those in the espionage community, faced his counterpart: code name “Rhymer”, of His Majesty’s Security Intelligence Service, better known as MI6. He had met her when the NSA had assigned him as liaison to MI6 back when he was just a young second lieutenant and they had a whirlwind romance that had been ended due to their conflicting loyalties. But that didn’t mean the fondness went away. “Hello, Zecora. What brings Liverpool’s most beautiful lady to see me off at the airport?” “Hullo, Fire,” she said with a smile. “I would have offered to take you out to breakfast before you departed. I know a lovely little place that serves the best fry-up in the area.” “Alas, I wish I could, but I need to be back at the Mountain for a debrief the moment we’re wheels down in Leesburg,” he told her. “Perhaps some other time?” She favored him with that smile that he knew she gave only to him. “Perhaps next time you’ll bring Stellar with you? I don’t believe we’ve traded all the stories we have about you just yet.” “All the more reason to make sure I keep you two as far away from each other as possible,” he said with a weary grin. “But I take it you aren’t here to plan your next vacation.” Zecora shook her head and instead pulled a manilla envelope from her purse. “This is all the information that we were able to get from the FSB liaison. Apparently they’ve heard about your little traveler and, while they can’t lodge any sort of official protest, they’ve decided to be petty about confirming any of the intel sharing requests the Mountain and MOD Corsham have made.” “Even when they know they’re going to get something out of it the Russians can be petty,” Fire sighed. “Small wonder my parents bailed. Anyway, I see you got the information.” Zecora nodded. “Ironically, due to you: your name carries some weight amongst the FSB diehards and especially amongst those who aren’t willing to play petty games when the fate of the world is at stake.” She gave it to him. “The long and the short of it is that your man Syhareta is on the up-and-up. More than one of the surveillance cameras from the solar facility caught glimpses of the Queen being there, so he’s telling the truth.” “So she’s giving us not only protection, but the means to protect ourselves now,” he mused. “I wonder what that means.” Zecora got up from the seat. “It probably means we’re right well bloody fucked,” she thought. “Well, you have a plane to catch and I have a debriefing to attend before my own outing to…” She smiled impishly. “Somewhere less fun than this. I hope I survive.” Fire chuckled. “You mean you hope they survive you.” “Right you are, luv, right you are.” She went over and kissed him on the cheek. “See you again sometime.” With that, she departed. He didn’t bother looking back, instead opening the package and starting to read. “Oh, good, I’m not late.” Fire looked up from the report and at the girl approaching. She wore black cargo pants, a teal t-shirt and an eggplant-colored beret. “Slipped into your civvies, Petty Officer?” While it wasn’t forbidden to wear civilian clothing on military flights, it wasn’t exactly encouraged, either, for a number of reasons from decorum to simple safety. It was why he himself had changed into his own uniform for the flight, even though he had to admit it probably would be more comfortable to dress in something more casual. “Sir, I’m dressed as such because the moment we touch down I need to meet with the Regional Reclamation Authority to see if there are any surviving CIA safehouses that we can store our new guests in. Looking for something out by Springwind, but it is what it is.” “Still doesn’t explain the civvies.” “CIA rules. We’re dealing with their safehouses, we have to play their games. Personally, I prefer to wear my uniform, especially since it’ll be the last I do before I switch duty stations.” She pulled her tablet out of her backpack. “Once they’re safe, I’ll be reassigned from ONI to NAVSPECWARCOM. Probably won’t have to switch ratings – no time for that – but it’s a good thing I already have some training.” “You do realize that if you’re going to NAVSPECWARCOM, chances are you’re going to SIX Det ALPHA.” Fire’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll have a better chance of winning the lottery or surviving a direct lightning strike than outlasting the war.” The young woman looked at him. “It’s in the blood, General. It’s been in my blood since before I was even born. My grandparents stood brave. My father stood brave. And now, when everything is at risk, how could I do anything less? It’d be an insult to my ancestors…and worse, to my own nature. And you know my parents always taught me to do the right thing.” Fire looked at her and his eyes softened. He’d seen too many valiant souls lose their lives for the cause. Too many corpses that should have lived to see their futures blossom and now never would. And now he wondered if he would have to bury another – and this one would hit home harder than anything. He already lost his son last year when his fighter had been shot down over the Western Pacific. He wasn’t sure he could bear the loss. “Just…when you go, be careful. We lost Sunburst. We can’t lose you too.” Petty Officer 2nd Class Starlight Glimmer, United States Navy, looked at her father. Unlike her brother, the late Lt. Sunburst, she chose to go the enlisted route so she wouldn’t be accused of coasting on her family name. And now, she was going to prove it. “Always, Dad,” she said, giving him a smile. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 250017TJUL30: She hated places like this, Applejack thought to herself for the umpteenth time. Buildings that could hide snipers, all with bullets with her name on them. Rattletrap ruins that could fall down on her and her troops, crushing them and leaving them helpless. Places where there was really no place to hide and no place to go. She’d seen far too many locations like this in her years in service and seeing them again did not bring her any comfort. This went a thousandfold, especially given that the place in question was her own hometown. She even recognized the place that she stood in currently. How many times had they been to Licorice & Pizzazz when she and her friends had been downtown? Granted, the Sugarcube Corner had been their usual haunt, but that was far closer to CHS than downtown, and when they went to the main part of the town for the shopping there, Licorice & Pizzazz almost had the same feel. From the black, white and aqua tiles to the whole 1950s diner look of the place, it was kind of like a home away from home, if that made some odd sense. Pinkie had even referred to it once as the “Backup Emergency Sugarcube Corner” in case they had a need for Backup Emergency Sugarcube Corner emergencies. Well, now, as she looked at the cracked and missing tiles of the store, gazing at a weathered and cracked milkshake glass that still had the Licorice & Pizzazz etched logo still on it, it made her wonder if any of that had been real. Sometimes it felt as though her life had really started during the war, and everything prior was a fever dream for someone who had yet to understand what real life had been. And if this is real life, I think I’d prefer to go back to the old days, she sighed. Her eyes drifted over to a broken, boxy shape against the wall, knowing what it was instantly. A reproduction 1967 Rock-Ola 434 Concerto “Happy Days” jukebox, she and her friends had played many a song on its CD roster on the days they had come here. She remembered the time when Sunset had completely monopolized the playlist and they had all spent hours, drinking shakes, chatting about the future and, as a result, missing the last train back to Apple Corners. Granny had ended up having to drive out to pick them up at 1 in the morning on a school night, and after the (well-deserved) ear chewing they received and the subsequent grounding, it had still been one of the more memorable parts of Applejack’s life. It had been proof that she and Sunset had become sisters in all but blood, twins in a strange sense, and both looking forward to the future. Applejack remembered that well, because it had only been two weeks later that the Anon-a-Miss incident happened that spun everything out of control. “Whut th’ fuck ‘re you doin’ here?” Applejack turned, her hand going to her sidearm. She’d left her main weapons behind as she was told this was a safe part of town, but she’d given orders to her own troops to have their sidearms on them at all times – this turned out to be prudent, as the person standing in front of her had weapons on the ready. Sister looked at sister. Applejack noticed subtle differences in Apple Bloom that hadn’t been there since the last time they had seen each other a decade ago. For one, Bloom was now slightly taller than Applejack herself, maybe by about an inch or two. Secondly, she no longer wore the hairbow she’d worn all her life, but instead had her hair tied back in a braid that draped down her back. But there was one thing that the two sisters shared besides blood: the look in Bloom’s tangerine eyes had the same dispassionate look as that of Applejack’s own. The difference was that Applejack, trained in warfare, could turn it off. Bloom, having had to face all of this on her own, had no such training – and as a result, likely always had the look of a killer. The thought dismayed the older sister. “Ah said, whut’re you doing here?” Bloom demanded quietly – and probably only that because they were both outdoors. “Luna told me that you’d be here,” Applejack said simply. “Yeah, well, she was right. Bravo, her.” Bloom looked her sister up and down. “So, Army, huh?” The tone in the younger sister’s voice was dispassionate and uncaring, not just a sign of love lost, but of respect lost. The woman standing before Applejack may have been a random stranger, for all Bloom sounded as though she cared. “Look, sis….” Applejack began. “Ah don’t care whut y’ have to say, Sergeant, or whatever th’ fuck y’ are,” Bloom said. “One, I’m a Navy SEAL, so not a sergeant. Two, I’m a naval officer, so definitely not a sergeant. I’m the one in charge of the combat troops we brought.” “Oh, an’ Ah’m s’pposed to just bow down before your greatness?” Bloom scoffed. “We didn’t need you here when you abandoned us. Why would we needja now?” The tone in Bloom’s voice made Applejack unsure if she referred to her specifically, or the government in general. “Sis, I didn’t come here to fight with you. I came to make peace.” “An’ y’ done said yer piece an Ah don’t fuckin’ care.” The look on Bloom’s face turned to disgust. “What, y’ thought that Ah’d see ya an’ everything’d be roses an’ rainbows? Y’ ran out on us without a care in th’ world! Granny died never seein’ ya again, an’ y didn’t even care! An now you come like some golden-haired goddess, like y’re Sunset, Part 2? Hell, y’ don’t even sound like an Apple anymore, like yer too good for us! So why th’ hell should Ah care ‘bout what you have t’ say?” Applejack ignored the taunts; she was going to be the better person here, but it wasn’t easy, and Bloom’s antagonism wasn’t making things any easier. “From what I gathered, you didn’t do much better either, pissing off Mac like you did. And for that matter, he and I made up. Did you know he’s married now? Married Trixie Lulamoon and they have two kids. You’re an aunt now and your – our – family needs you.” “No. No they don’t. And not that y’ give a shit – since you left ‘n all – but they gave up on me long ago. Everything Ah need, Ah have here, from mah boyfriend t’ mah rifle. An’ if Ah die t’morrow, no one’s gonna notice. No one’s gonna care.” “I’d care.” “Ah doubt it. Now get out of here – Ah got a patrol comin’ through in a few an’ Ah gotta give ‘em cover fire.” Nothing more to say, she walked over to the nearest window, which looked as though it had a well-worn sniper’s nest setup. It was then that Applejack noticed her sister was limping slightly, like she was recovering from a recent injury. Applejack wasn’t sure that she should leave it like this. She then felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see another face she didn’t expect to see: Scootaloo. She said nothing, but the look in her eyes said everything: come with me. Reluctantly, Applejack walked away from Bloom, leaving things unsaid and an uncomfortable taste in her mouth. Forget about words unsaid, she had a feeling that to solve her issue with her sister was going to take a voluminous amount of words that needed to be aired before any healing could start. She just wasn’t sure that this was the best place to do it in. *** A few minutes later, she found herself in Scootaloo’s apartment. Scootaloo passed her something that looked like a homebrewed beer. “Here, it tastes like shit,” Scootaloo told her, “but it’s the best thing we’ve got around here. And since I see you’re wearing a Budweiser, I guess you’ve had enough shitty beer around the world.” Applejack took the beer and took a swill; it wasn’t the best beer she had, but it beat the formaldehyde-laden garbage she’d had back when she’d had a mission in the Phillipines – now that was shit beer. “So you knew?” Applejack asked. Scootaloo laughed. “Remember, I was the military buff between me, Bloomie and Sweetie. Sweetie was into girly-girl things, and your sister’s always been a gearhead and tech freak. I have to admit, I’m jealous – you’re a SEAL and a commander, if I can tell your rank correctly.” “Yeah. OIC of the SEALs here,” Applejack said, taking another swig of her beer to punctuate her sentence. “Look, Scoots….” “Your sister isn’t the person she used to be, AJ. Sweetie’s married now and has a kid on the way. I’m pretty much the exile of the three, given that I live with my not-completely-my-boyfriend and had a nowhere life until all this shit started. But Bloom was going places until all this started. Did you know that the week before Decimation she’d received an offer to work for Cloudsdale Dynamics? The robotics manufacturer? They offered her a starting salary of $300K a year. And now? Nothing. It’s like karma got back at her for what we did to Sunset and Bloom only made it worse by pushing herself away from the rest of your family.” “What about you and Sweetie?” “She considers us the only family she has left, but even it’s strained between us three sometimes. She’s a proud and headstrong woman, you know.” Scootaloo laughed. “Just like every other Apple I’ve ever met.” Applejack chuckled at that. “Well, at least she didn’t have to spend the past decade running around the world to find herself. I just hope that she can find it in her heart to make up and return to the family.” The blonde then related everything she’d told her sister, and the cerise-haired girl listened with rapt interest. “Yeah. Sounds like it’s an overdue reunion,” Scootaloo said, getting up. “Look, it’s getting late and I gotta get on patrol myself, soon; I’m overdue and the only reason I’m getting away with it is because Luna asked me to talk to you – she knew this wasn’t going to go down easily.” “Fancy that – the old woman that knew us as kids can still read us like a book.” “Yeah, well, I hear that comes with age, wisdom, gray hairs and all that shit. Anyway, you go get some sleep, AJ; sounds like you need some. And I promise I’ll talk to Bloom as soon as I can. I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do what I can.” “That’s all I can ask, Scoots. Thanks for the beer and the talk. I’ll see myself out.” Applejack went to the door and with a last look at Scootaloo, left. The look shared between the two women was a sobering reminder to Applejack – when she’d left, she left behind angry and wounded teenagers, just like she was. Now, she was a returned woman with regrets and a recently removed chip on her shoulder. Why would any of the others be any different? Fluttershy was just as bad as I was, Sunset, she thought to herself as she made her way back to where she and her SEALs were quartered. It was going to be an uneasy sleep before the planning started in the morning. MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 250147TJUL30: The screams and rattles woke Bolt up. Remaining behind at the Mars Junction CMR terminus station as a rear echelon, she and the troops under her charge were there to provide communications and command support as well as watch over the captured…whatever it was. Bolt reached over for her sidearm and went to see what the issue was. The chances of getting any sleep were minimal anyway, not with that grotesque parody of a person that the Octos had made being here with them. Besides, she had to make sure her people weren’t going to kill that thing – unfortunately, they needed it alive for study, because corpses tended to rot fast and that could make things worse. She left the control room she was sleeping in and went downstairs to the platform where the troops assigned to guard the beast were. To Bolt’s lack of surprise, the creature was shaking the bars and rattling the cage, but it was doing it in a methodic manner, almost as if it were testing the cage to see what it’s limits were. “Lieutenant, that thing freaks me the fuck out,” one of her sergeants said. “It’s almost as if it knows that it’s just a cage and that it’s trying to figure out exactly what it’ll take to break out.” “I think that is what it’s trying to do,” agreed the lone SEAL present. As she had a broken leg, Lt. Cmdr. Apple had left the SEAL behind to assist them, mainly because Bolt’s own soldiers weren’t front line troops and if something went wrong, they would need someone with the skills to do what it took. “Do we have anything to sedate it?” Bolt asked the sailor. And then the rattling stopped…and that freaked out Bolt most of all. She looked at the creature and the creature looked back at her. And with that, Bolt realized that the creature knew somehow, what she’d been talking about. These things weren’t just mindless, grotesque monsters, but possibly sapient. It reminded her of something her father had told her as a child: Beware of the monsters that think, because they’re the most dangerous of all. Back then, her father had been merely warning her about child abductors and all the horrible things that could happen to kids. She wondered if her father, who hadn’t survived Decimation, would have ever taken a creature like this into account. “You know what we’re talking about, don’t you?” Bolt asked the creature. The squat continued to stare at her with those beady purple eyes. Eyes that clearly reflected an intelligence. Did they somehow capture the “queen” of these things? Or merely the smartest one? And that brought other questions: if this one was intelligent, were they really grotesque parodies of humans? Or, horrifyingly, could they actually be humans? Mutants were a thing of fiction, but then again, alien invaders had been fictional, too – and so were unicorns. And yet they were here, in the ruins of Canterlot, fighting an alien invasion, with the rumored chance to save the world being to find a woman that used to be a unicorn – a real, live unicorn. She looked at the creature again, and saw the intelligence in its eyes, and yet at the same time the bestial rage and madness. Which one was the creature’s true nature? Bolt didn’t have an answer. But, as she went back to her office, she wondered if she actually wanted to know if there was one – and if she would regret what that answer would be. > The Minarchist and the Night-Watchman State > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERTH, WESTRALIA 260034HJUL30: Looks, the Queen knew, could be deceiving. And here in the capital of Westralia, was one of the best examples of that. Before Decimation, this had been Perth, the capital of the state of West Australia. The sandgropers, as the locals called themselves, had always had issues with Canberra and had always itched for secession and independence; and fringe groups, from the Movement to Found the Republic of Swan River to WAxit, had always been a thorn in the Australian Capital Territory’s side. But then Decimation came, and with it, heavy damage to most of Australia. But by some miracle, or most likely due to its emptiness and remoteness from Australia’s population centers, West Australia was spared. Seeing their moment was nigh, the separatists pounced, declaring their independence as the Republic of Westralia. The provisional government, struggling to set itself up at the old RAAF station at Bogan Gate, trying desperately to rally against an alien invasion and coping with the murder of most of its citizens, didn’t have the resources or time to fight a civil war as well, and thus…simply gave up. The provisional government didn’t even acknowledge the Westralia situation, just ignored it completely while it desperately tried to hold the rest of Australia together. In the years since, what had once been Australia proper was like so much before Decimation – a time long gone. While Queensland, New South Wales, the former ACT (now absorbed into New South Wales), Victoria and Tasmania had chosen to remain in the Union, the Northern Territory was seeking its own independence and South Australia was courting both “Old Australia” and Westralia to see where it would ultimately end up. And so far, it was looking as though Westralia would possibly win that equation. As she gazed at the streets of Perth, the Queen looked around and realized it wasn’t hard to see why. Westralia was one of the few places on Earth that had not only escaped the devastation but had also rebounded and honestly didn’t look like Decimation had ever been a thing here. Moreover, due to the political stance of the Westralian government, those fleeing the war took refuge in a country that seemed to absorb immigrants with relative ease. The reason for that was simple, the Westralian government said: they had no interest in the war against the Others. The position of the Westralian government was that so long as they did not present a threat to the Others, the Others were no threat to them. But like anything beneath the surface, there were other things at work here. For starters, the Westralian government was deeply fascist, with a heavily-armed border against its former home country, enough so that it seemed as though while Old Australia wasn’t interested in a war on the Australian continent, Westralia was. Second were the number of weapons in the nation. Despite its size, Australia had always had a relatively small military force, and yet in the five years since Decimation, Westralia now boasted a military that had been larger than pre-Decimation Australia…and moreover, weapons that had not been seen anywhere else. The Westralian Navy boasted thirty-five state-of-the-art destroyers based on China’s Type 045A warship. The Westralian Air Force’s fighter backbone was the WAF/A-01 Swan, an original design based on the otherwise laughable Q-313 that Iran had once tried to field. The Westralia Army’s main battle tank was one based on the French XLR Leclerc. In addition, the Westralian military showed an expertise and development that was just short of impossible. Part of that could be explained by immigrants with advanced military knowledge or even deserters from other nations seeking refuge in Westralia – it was rumored, after all, that many former Ukranian soldiers who could get to Westralia were doing so in droves – but even still, the buildup made no sense. But most inexplicable was the financial situation. Western Australia had always been the poorest of the Australian states, but Westralia was wealthy enough that had it existed as a separate nation pre-Decimation it easily could have qualified for G-8 status. It boasted a budding agricultural and technological base, the fast-growing city of Derby was being called the “New Gold Coast” for its vastly growing entertainment industry and when the war was over, Westralia looked poised to be more than ready for regional power status. The meteoric rise of some nations were confounding, but given the current global situation, this verged on impossible…and needless to say, the powers of the world wanted to know why. How did Westralia get so powerful and why hadn’t they suffered any attacks by the Others? The aliens had hit other nations that had declined to participate in the global war, and had even destroyed Sri Lanka, whose government had outright surrendered to the Others via broadcast. Something else had to be there. And so, here she was, investigating it. Espionage wasn’t her forte, and she doubted that she was the only one here – she’d already spotted some CIA, MI6, FSB and other national operatives who she just happened to note by coincidence – and all of them were looking for answers. Currently, she was biding her time at a café a few blocks away from Government House, waiting until things were slow enough to make her move. Given that it was a Friday night, the streets were bustling with the nightlife, but even still, the number of people on the streets, from Westralian police and civilians, was denser than usual. She wondered if she should just ride her motorcycle back to her aircraft, stashed in the brush a hundred kilometers east of the town, or just bother to rent a hotel for the night and try again tomorrow. “So, here for the big show?” She turned and saw a man seated next to her, drinking coffee as well and watching the crowd. Given his demeanor and general shape – or lack of it, given his dad bod – he was clearly a civilian. “Sorry,” she said, doing her best attempt at faking a British accent and hoping he wouldn’t notice. “I just moved here a few weeks ago and am still sorting my way through. Is something expected to occur?” “Ah. Well, apparently over at Government House in a few minutes, something big is about to occur. Some famous American celebrity who’s against the war’s going to give up her citizenship. Government’s already given her asylum, and she’s more than welcome here – we could bloody well use some levelheaded celebrities and the yanks won’t miss her.” Curious, the Queen wondered about that. She recalled hearing in the news a couple of weeks ago that Brightstar, New Hollywood’s hottest up and coming star, constantly spoke out about the US government’s involvement in the war, arguing that she had been the only member of her family that had survived Decimation and she intended to spend the rest of her life using her fame to speak out on behalf the slaughtered millions that made up the ruins of Los Angeles and Old Hollywood. But from what the various news reports said, Brightstar was somewhat vain and flighty and hadn’t even lived in Los Angeles when Decimation came – she actually lived in New Hollywood (or Palm Springs, as it was known back then). Regardless, however, she was a celebrity and whether she was an intellectual or a moron who just spouted whatever came to mind, she had the public clout to make people listen…and that could be a dangerous thing. Following the crowds, the Queen walked over to Government House, to see a large gathering already, as well as a bunch of people standing on the steps. Normally, this sort of ad hoc gathering would likely not be allowed by the Westralian government but seeing how the soldiers and policemen standing there just idly paid attention was more than enough to get the message across to the wise: they were tolerating it, because this clearly made for great propaganda. This was made doubly obvious by the hastily-erected monitors just in front of the doors to Government House. No “organic” assembly would have the time or resources to do this. The Westralian government was sending a message to the world, and they didn’t care to be subtle about it. Finally, a young woman around the Queen’s age stepped forward and onto a wooden box that someone had provided so that she could stand tall enough to see the crowd. “Thank you all for coming,” she said, looking at them all. “Despite what I do for a living, I’m really not used to crowds and certainly not public speaking, so not everything I say is going to make sense. Please just be understanding and know it’s from the heart. “I believe in a world of peace. I believe that violence doesn’t solve anything and that, if anything, only makes it worse. I have experienced that in my life and believe me, folks, I absolutely regret it. I tried to move on from those times, but I couldn’t – it’s like an infection in your soul that can’t easily be cured and if anything, goes into remission. So I have tried to do so by being a good role model and ambassador for peace. I am a strong believer in fair play and tempered wisdom. “And then Decimation came, and I don’t doubt anyone here thought the same thing: so many of our loved ones were dead. I lost my parents and my kid sister. My husband…he died in my arms.” Tears came to the woman’s eyes as she looked at the crowd, but she never turned away. “So many of us lost so much that day and it was understandable that humanity’s first reaction was to lash out and attack – it’s in our genes, in our blood. But as a friend once told me, we need to rise above it all and embrace our better angels. And as the world began to go to war, I did that. My career was now in ruins, and I had nothing else to do, so what better thing to do than the wage for peace when so many were waging for war?” She turned away to look at the stars briefly before continuing. “But I was like the old Greek tragedy of Cassandra: no one listened, no one wanted to listen. My government wanted to sink into wanton warfare, spending lives like it was no tomorrow while the so-called ‘leaders’ slunk back and watched from safety. Whole countries were decimated needlessly and did the governments of the world listen? No! They didn’t! They kept claiming ‘we can win the war’ when the truth is, we shouldn’t be worried about that – we should focus on winning the peace! “Eventually, I lost faith in my government and left the US, hoping the Canadians would listen. But they didn’t either – they had been infected with the same warmongering sickness as my old country was. And as I watched so many enlightened governments of the world do the same, my heart sank. The leaders of the world don’t care about the soldiers getting blown to bits or the refugees running from the war, so long as they remain in power! I can’t comment about the Others – they are alien after all, but I am as human as you and so I know we are a faulty species, just like you. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. “But then I heard about this place. The shining hope of the world, the beacon of true freedom and care, the true land of the free and home of the brave – because peace takes bravery, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!” The woman gestured towards Government House. “Chancellor Underwood and Prime Minister Landslide knew the risks of telling the world that they were wrong, and they were brave enough to do so anyway! And together, alongside the peace-loving peoples of the world, they built this land – this nation – free from the sickness infesting the rest of the world and humanity. War is the disease, my friends, and we can either take the choice of suffering with this illness and fighting the Others until there’s nothing left…or we can take the path that Government House took and declare that we can stand up to the world and tell them we will not die of the same illness that they have! That we have the cure and it is peace!” The woman held up a small blue booklet. “This is my passport as a United States citizen. I used to be proud to carry this, to state what I am. But not anymore.” Looking at a soldier standing next to her, she took a lighter from him and set her passport ablaze, holding the burning document up for everyone to see. “But I no longer have faith in a country that would rather see me dead than to save its own people from the madness. And I will have no part of it. As of now, I hereby declare myself no longer an American citizen and declare my right as a sovereign citizen of the world to request asylum in Westralia!” The crowd cheered in wild abandon as the woman threw the burning passport to the ground, stomping on it. “Hear me out! Even if my closest friends of old asked me to go back, I wouldn’t! Even if my family somehow survived and begged me to return, I refuse to! I was known for my fair play, my sportsmanship and my loyalty – but more than anything else, I need to be loyal to peace! So I swear before everyone here, I, Rainbow Dash, will never support this war and never do anything to tolerate its existence in this world! The Others aren’t the threat to humanity, the immoral and illegal actions of the world’s other tyrants are!” Rainbow held her arms out to the crowd as she spoke. “Though I am now stateless, I call – I plead – for the Westralian government to do everything they can to shield its people from this global insanity. In my now-former country, contrarians and fools called this policy isolationism, and equated it with stupidity and narrow-mindedness, even racism. But I tell you: I am African-American, or black if you prefer. I put up with more racism from my own people than I ever did from the Others! The Others didn’t call me the N-word or say I could play soccer professionally because of the color of my skin – my so-called ‘fellow humans’ did!” She scoffed. “Look at the brave soldiers and police officers of Westralia behind me. They’re not all just white. They’re Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern – all coming from different places to make this place what it should be!” The defiant woman struck the air with her fist. “I declare myself Westralian if this government would have me, and if you, my fellow peace-loving peoples will! And together, we will do whatever it takes to bring peace and sanity back to the world. Now who’s with me?” If the crowd had cheered earlier, Rainbow’s newer words were pure red meat. The crowed chanted the name of the now-former American soccer star, welcoming her to their ranks. Every voice in the crowd lifted in support of her words, every heart there beating in unison with hers. All but one. The Queen watched, trying to keep the look of utter shock on her face as she realized what had just happened and how the friendly, tomboyish and boisterous girl she knew had turned into a provocateur and propagandist for the Westralian government. Rainbow, what have you done? The following morning, she had breakfast in her hotel bedroom, having opted to stay the night in a hotel to get over what she felt was Rainbow’s absolute betrayal. The girl she had once known would have never said that, never been so eloquent about the knife wound she was presenting the world, but the Queen had to remind herself: it had been a long, long time since they had been girls. Rainbow really didn’t even look like herself anymore, the long rainbow tresses that she’d had for nearly all her life now supplanted by rainbow cornrows. And now, while eating a thoroughly tasteless full English breakfast – What the hell is “bubble and squeak”, anyway? – she watched the Westralian National Network’s morning news broadcast, where the news presenter was giving an interview to Westralia’s newest citizen; in a sidebar screen, footage showed of the Westralian prime minister himself swearing in Rainbow not only as an immigrant, but as a citizen outright, in gratitude for her “eloquent defense of Westralia and of unyielding faith in peace overall”. Meanwhile, the presenter continued to lob softball questions at her, each one turning the Queen’s stomach even further: Did Rainbow ever intend to return to the US? Not at all; in fact, it was common knowledge that once someone gave up their US citizenship, they were essentially persona non grata. Did she regret it? Rainbow admitted that while she felt some regret for what she did, in the end it was the right thing as she now had the chance to be a part of something greater. Now that she was a Westralian, given her international fame as a premiere-level athlete, did she plan to join any of the teams in the Westralian National Soccer League? Rainbow shook her head, saying that as much as she loved athletics, her days as a player and an Olympian were behind her. Instead, she would take a position in the Ministry of Sport and Culture, relishing the chance to work in government for the betterment of her fellow Westralians. She did note, however, that the Perth Glory had extended an invitation to work out with them whenever she wanted and had even sent her kit early this morning. The Queen mentally pushed back the bile in her throat, the forkful of black pudding wavering just before her mouth. She’d wanted to try it because she never had it before, but even still, it was like so much of what she was seeing here in Westralia: a gilded, golden surface hiding the rot underneath. And now part of those ensuring the rot was covered by gilding it was a woman that the Queen knew once upon a time would have found abhorrent for doing so. She pushed aside the remainder of the meal and instead downed the breakfast tea – she was going to need the caffeine if she intended to get through this. Instead, she took out a laptop, and started tapping away, activating the various tunning and INFOWAR protocols. She then sent out a signal, one that would bounce through several proxies and find its way to the nearest allied communications station. They would recognize the FOUREYES protocol, as it was the only way she contacted them. A few minutes and one drained cup of tea later, a man wearing a Chinese uniform came on screen. “This is Gen. Heavenly Stem, PLA Air Force. Do I have the honor of speaking to the Dāofēng nǚwáng?” The Queen activated the vocoder on her end; it wasn’t as good as the one in her helmet, but it would service. There was no visual of her, so at least her face would remain hidden. “This is she,” she stated. “I have a message for the Combined Intelligence Analysis Group and it is of the utmost importance that you pass the information on.” “Your name bears great weight, great lady, and our people are forever grateful for your actions in Xi’an – your spirited defense saved countless lives. But even I must bow to the rules of my government, and the standard is that all incoming communications must be cleared by the Party prior to being issued to the CIAG, NATO, the CIS, ASEAN, SIXTEENEYES or UNIF.” The Queen bit back a retort; lives were in the balance and too many nations wanted to play politics when it suited them, even with the world at stake. It seemed that sometimes they didn’t realize their behavior was why fascists like Westralia came to power or why the old regimes in Myanmar and North Korea continued to hold on to their iron-fisted grasp on power. But even if she tried to break off the line and contact someone else, there was no guarantee that she would be able to reach anyone as quickly; worse, the Chinese government might take it as an insult and grateful for her actions or not, would be wary of working with her further. I swear, I hate politics – I was never cut out for it, she groaned inwardly. “Please, press to your government that this is information that cannot just sit. I have reason to believe that—” She never finished her sentence. There was a sudden running through the outside hallway, and a second later her door was battered down, while troops wearing Westralian combat gear broke into the room. “HALT! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!” one voice shouted. The Queen acted quickly. She grabbed her computer and threw it out the nearby window and immediately followed. Bullets filled the space behind her and she even felt one tracer round sizzle right past her right ear. The fact that they immediately shot at her without her even trying to fire back made it clear that killing her was an option if they couldn’t arrest her…and they had already moved to that plan. Unfortunately for them, they hadn’t expected her to jump out the window of her hotel, twenty-one storeys above. A second later, her laptop hit the ground, shattering into so many pieces and run over by at least one car before the drivers started reacting. In a second, she would reach the pavement as well and with the same general results unless she acted fast. She couldn’t change into her trademark gear; given that they went after her the last thing she needed was for her name to be used in Westralian propaganda. She didn’t even have time to try to figure out how they caught her; that line of reasoning would have to happen afterwards. Tapping a ruby stud in her left ear, she then spoke to the air, hoping that it would be heard. “Emergency transmat! Bounce me onto the nearest roof. Transmat, fire!” She felt her body cover her with rainbow, translucent energy like a cocoon… …and a second later crashed onto the nearby Westpac bank building, across the street. A few of the Westralian soldiers had filed out onto a nearby balcony and opened fire on her, the rounds crossing the distance and hitting everything, with her just barely dodging out of the way. She had a number of options to return fire, but unlike them she didn’t want to risk hitting civilians and more important, she needed to get out of town. She activated her comms again. “Need a pickup where I am, stat. Bring weapons on Blue Soprano online. Plot me a course to the nearest RAAF base, even if we have to skybounce.” She didn’t wait for the answer; she needed to get out of range of the net that was going to close around her soon enough. Said “net” came in the form of a massive explosion to the far side of the building, followed by a WAF/A-01 Swan screaming above. The shockwave from the missile blast threw her to the ground, but she rolled with it, though not for long. Dealing against heavily-armed stormtroopers was one thing, but now they were literally trying to kill her by taking out the building if need be. In the distance sirens and emergency warning beacons sounded into the air, letting all of Perth know that war had finally reached out to their nation, even if the populace wasn’t aware that their own hypocritical country was the aggressor in this instance. She tapped her stud one last time. “Gear up!” she ordered, and magical circles enveloped her briefly as her armor suddenly surrounded and adhered to her, hiding the woman she was and revealing the Queen of Knives in her full, powered glory. Pulling her arm back, the sound of thunder roiled through the sky as a blaze of fire appeared in her hand, quickly taking the shape of a flaming revolver. Meanwhile, the Swan had come around for a second pass, now joined by a wingman. The first one opted for guns and the minigun in the airframe spat, firing dozens of depleted uranium rounds her way, each large enough to completely obliterate her if they connected. Instead, the Queen loosed her own weapon: the Golden Gun, to give her own response. A blast of solar fire rocketed away from the gun, hurling itself at the oncoming fighter and hammering into it practically instantaneously. The fighter detonated in midair, the wingman barely managing to pull away before getting cooked in the resulting fireball. The Queen turned and fired two more shots; the second Swan barely dodged the second blast but the third round struck true right in the cockpit, burning that portion of the fighter away and sending the remainder of the airframe careening into a nearby skyscraper that she hoped was empty of people. Engines roared behind her and her aircraft appeared twenty feet above: Blue Soprano 01, her own personal craft. A blue-and-gold fighter that looked like someone had taken an old NASA X-29 and given it an art-deco refit, the vehicle was more than capable of holding its own against Octo cuttlefish and capital ships, and certainly would outmatch a Swan. Given that there was no place for it to vertically land, it hovered over her, waiting for her to transmat aboard. As she appeared in the cockpit, warning sirens went off, letting her know that she’d been targeted by additional bandits. Well, unfortunately for them, they weren’t going to have it easy. Settling her hands on the HOTAS, she immediately rocketed off, then pulled hard up and kicked in max, climbing towards the sky, ignoring the sirens indicating they had a lock on her. She continued to climb anyway, pushing past Angels Five-Oh and continuing to go, her pursuers hellbent on taking her down. At Angels Six-Oh they launched their missiles at one. She kept going, and the missiles sputtered out at Angels Six-Two, not built for this kind of atmospheric action. Eventually the Swans pulled away at Angels Six-Five, rapidly approaching the coffin corner. In the viewscreen on her canopy, it showed as the four broke off, no longer in pursuit. She smiled; time to return the favor. At Angels Six-Six she immediately pulled back, letting Blue Soprano lazily arc into a wingover and then barreled down on them, triggering her own guns. Her rounds cut through the four aircraft, shredding them as if they were nothing. She wasn’t thrilled about having to take human lives when she was supposed to be protecting them, but then again she hadn’t expected her investigation to turn into a firefight and a direct attack on her. Watching as the last of the four fighters turn into a fireball several thousand feet below her, she adjusted her profile and checked her position. If the onboard computers did their homework, then she should have had a plot. “RAAF Control, this is Blue Soprano 01. I say again, RAAF Control, this is Blue Soprano 01.” The response was quick. “This is RAAF Control, Blue Soprano 01. Please send confirmation code, over.” The Queen tapped a quick sequence on the keyboard to her side and sent. A second later the response came back. “Bloody hell, it’s you! We read you loud and clear, Blue Soprano! What can the RAAF do for you today?” “I’m inbound to RAAF Farrars Creek with some urgent information that needs to be transmitted to the CIAG and related. I’m inbound and moving fast.” She thought about it for a second. “I’ll also need some fighter escorts if you have them; Westralian assets just tried to shoot me down and nearly singed my tailfeathers.” “Bloody traitorous bastards. Alright, we’ve notified No. 209 Squadron, should be coming out of RAAF Woomera to cover you. We now have you IFF confirmed on radar so they should be there soon.” “Woomera, huh? SA decided to stay in the Union?” “Vote was official yesterday and announced last night. Now those damn sandgropers have got us right on their bloody doorstep. In any case, Blue Soprano, we’ve got you covered. We’ll let the boys and girls at Farrars get a coldie ready for ya. RAAF Control, out.” PERTH, WESTRALIA 261003HJUL30: Various military police scurried around the hotel room, performing forensics and doing DNA sampling on the bed and half-eaten breakfast, looking for hair follicles, and trying to identify the stranger that had been in the room. Outside, more police interviewed others in the other hotel rooms, trying to get an answer. In the middle of the room, wearing the uniform of the Westralian National Police, the commander in charge looked around, more to make sure his people were being through than doing any actual investigation himself. As part of WNP Counterintelligence, it was his duty to safekeep the nation from the forces that threatened it. And today, that number had increased by one. He shook his head in dismay. He’d heard the tales of this so-called “Queen of Knives” and that the world considered her the closest thing the world had to a true superhero. But today, the truth had been outed: she was clearly a spy for the aggressors and had even killed several brave Westralian troopers in defense of their homeland. No “true” hero would ever sink so low. It was said that no one knew who the Queen of Knives’ true identity was, and that the closest they could come was that based on her voice, she was either American or Canadian. Well, he swore that he would find out and expose her to the world before putting her down like the dog she was. It would send the proper message to her masters, he mused. “Are you Cmdr. Funnelweb?” A man and a woman walked in, and the man flashed his badge. “My name is Piercepoint, and I’m with the Ministry of Defense and Police Protection. And of course, my lovely associate is—” “A pleasure to have you, Mr. Piercepoint,” Funnelweb stated, shaking the man’s hand. “And your partner needs no introduction, though my understanding was that she was part of the Sport and Cultural Ministry.” “Cover story,” was Piercepoint’s response. “The Prime Minister felt that someone with her talents would be better served fighting the good fight as a covert. And quite the good thing as well, because clearly things are afoot. What do you have?” One of Funnelweb’s officers passed him a tablet. “She checked into the hotel at one in the morning and checked in; the concierge who checked her in is being investigated right now though I doubt we’ll find anything. As for the woman’s identity, she claimed to be one Izzy Moonbow, recently immigrated from Malaysia. We’re discussing things with the Malaysian embassy, but given the country’s current situation, I doubt we’ll get any answer of substance. One interesting thing is that the credit card she paid with was in her name but bounces to a French Polynesian bank. We’ll do what we can to contact the bank but given our current diplomatic status with France….” Funnelweb left it that. “You don’t have to say another further, Commander, I understand. Fortunately, we do have other options.” Piercepoint turned to his counterpart. “Do you think your contacts could…?” “Without a doubt. They all have as much reason as I do; I’m just the face of the group, but my group is thorough.” She looked at Funnelweb. “Please let me know who I need to contact in your office to pass the information to.” Funnelweb looked at the woman with new eyes. “Forgive me for saying this, but when you first made your speech, I thought you were nothing but a stupid root rat. But it looks like the Yanks lost something good when they drove you away.” Standing there, Rainbow Dash nodded. “Believe me, I’ve been fighting the good fight for years, ever since my husband was murdered. And I hope that someday, when this is all done, Westralia will welcome my Shadowbolts with open arms.”